Already this Tuesday, January 24, a concert will be held in the club “Melnā Piektdiena” with the participation of three very serious foreign heavy music groups – it is difficult to say whether the main attractions of the audience will be the German extreme metal group “Heaven Shall Burn”, the legendary Floridian “dead men” Obituary” or English metal choirs “Malevolence”.
“Heaven Shall Burn” – a quintet formed in Germany in 1995, whose stylistic description would most likely be in the “deathcore” genre – is being promoted as the “headliners”. This group has already released nine studio albums, of which the last three – “Veto” (2013), “Wanderer” (2016) and “Of Truth And Sacrifice” (2020) – reached the German Top 3, and the last one even took first place column. What this means in the great vast Vāczeme, it seems, no one needs to explain…
Modern metal is currently on top in Europe, so “Heaven Shall Burn” can claim the title of one of the most relevant bands of the heavy genre at the moment. Looking at the “setlist” of the songs played at the last concerts, you can see that the Germans, quite logically, mostly rely on the sound material included in “Of Truth And Sacrifice”, but also perform older songs, including, to the reviewer’s great pleasure, the songs of the Swedish “Edge Of Sanity” “Black Tears” cover.
One of the founders of Floridian “death metal”, “Obituary”, is recorded as the second in the rank of the Riga concert, but “metalists” with experience will definitely crown this group in the main status. In addition, “Obituary” has just released a new and therefore still hot studio album – “Dying Of Everything” was officially released on January 13, so it is clear that the songs included in it will also dominate the concert. The good news – the album is very, very good! It should be reminded that this group was formed in the late 80s in Tampa, during its existence it has already released 11 studio albums, the first two of which – “Slowly We Rot” (1989) and “Cause Of Death” (1990) – heavy music (and not only them) created something of an explosion in the world and are still considered death metal classics.
There are no surprises in the composition of the group – it still includes John Tardy (vocals), Trevor Perez (rhythm guitar) and Donald Tardy (drums), who have been in the lineup since the very beginning (so 1988), as well as guitarist Terry Butler (he has been playing with “Obituary” since 2010, noted also in such greats as “Death”, “Massacre”, “Six Feet Under” etc.) and bass guitarist Ken Andrews (since 2012). Stylistically, nothing has changed either – the same “old-fashioned” “deadbeat” metal with Tardy’s ear-splitting vocals on the trumpet.
The status of warm-up for both of these grands will obviously be given to the Sheffield metal choir brigade “Malevolence”, but at least the reviewer will wait for their performance with no less impatience than the other two. The band’s last year’s “Malicious Intent” (they have a total of three studio albums in their discography) was also ranked in the Top 10 or close to the best album of 2022 by authoritative metal music publications (such as “Metal Hammer”), and such a rating should be recognized as fully deserved.
In summary – on Tuesday before the concert, there won’t be time to swing a lot (or drink beer and smoke at the corner of the club), you have to hear all three bands, you can’t miss anything!
