- Country: United States
- Style: Sludge metal / Doom metal
- Label: Gilead Media
- Release date: 25 March 2014
Seventy-five minutes is a big ask, and Thou know it. Heathen opens with “Free Will”, nearly fifteen minutes long, and makes you wait through a long, slow build before Bryan Funck’s scream finally tears in. When it does, it lands like a door kicked off its hinges. That patience is the whole trick of this record, and it works almost every time.
The Baton Rouge band have always been heavy; what changed here is how much space they leave. “Feral Faun” moves from crushing sludge to something close to shoegaze haze, two guitars weaving instead of just stacking up. The short interludes aren’t filler – they set up themes the long songs pay off later. “In Defiance of the Sages” is the most direct punch, and “Ode to Physical Pain” closes on a slow, majestic grind that feels earned after everything before it.
James Whitten’s recording is warm and huge without being polished, the bass sitting right in your chest. The one stretch I skip is the long, drifting middle of “Immorality Dictates”. Otherwise this is the best sludge record of 2014, and probably of the decade.
Best tracks:
Free Will
Feral Faun
In Defiance of the Sages
Ode to Physical Pain
Author’s rating: 9.1/10
Gave it 5 stars
No member has given this album 5 stars yet. Join WeMetalheads and rate it.
