Statement – Heaven Will Burn

Statement’s “Heaven Will Burn” walks the line between Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. That is its strength and its weakness, because it will likely neither make Hard Rock fans, nor Heavy Metal fans truly happy. The first song “Playing Around”, for instance, already plays around with both genres in a way that makes it feel strange at times. The intro that is a sound effect of an old vinyl record is a nice homage to the early times of music, but the combination of rough, slightly guttural vocals and Hard Rock feels a bit weird. It is not that it cannot be enjoyed, but the mix doesn’t really feel smooth. The next song “Madness Will Flow” is considerably heavier, but maybe that is also due to the lyrics that are about a truly epical booze fueled party. But whatever the reason is, the mix of harsh vocals and Hard Rock and Party Metal works excellently here! After that Statement takes a massive turn towards radio friendly Hard Rock with “Created by You”. The harsh vocals are gone, but suddenly there are song structures that have almost completely lost their bite. Yes, the guitar work is still nice, as for the rest? Not really. “Darkest Hour” takes a much heavier turn again. The harsh vocals are back, there is a dark riff and all in all there is a very aggressive feeling about the song, way more aggressive than one would expect. The ballad “Nightmare” that follows alters between soft and heavy again and marks the album’s final change towards radio friendly music. Particularly the 6^th song “Part of Me” is likely to make it to the radio, but the 7^th (title) track “Heaven Will Burn” is not far behind there. The next couple of songs go a bit more towards Metal again, but only slightly. “Sleazy Fantasy” is another Metal song though which is what makes it stand out. Aggressive vocals, screaming guitars and absolutely NOT radio friendly! In other words: A great Metal song! After that the album closes with the almost obligatory ballad at the end like so many other albums.

Now, what is one supposed to think of this album? It is not really bad, but it feels like two different EPs got slammed together to make up a single full length album. The harsher parts cater to the Metal audience, the other part caters to a more mainstream audience. It is still not a bad album, but Metal fans should be cautious about this one. I’m still willing to give it 7 devils, but it was a close call.

Track list:

1. Playing Around
2. Madness
3. Created By You
4. Darkest Hour
5. Nightmare
6. Part Of Me
7. Heaven Will Burn
8. A New Beginning
9. A Fire Burns
10. Sleazy Fantasy
11. Benefit My Time

Playing time:  51:35

Release date: 17 June, 2016

Label: Mighty Music

Website: Statement (Facebook)