HEART ATTACK: Negative Sun (HEAVY METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Released a few weeks before the Hellfest, "Negative Sun" is the third album of the French band Heart Attack and the first one on Atomic Fire Records. The band proposes a Thrash music with many other influences and something tells us that it could well take the light in the months to come.

The album opens with a diptych representative of the music of the band. The introductory 'Rituals' sets an aboriginal tribal mood before going on a wall of guitars with 'Septic Melody' which is aptly named. The rhythm section hits an impressive bpm and the double vocals, Kevin Gueyer's flaying and William Ribeiro's half growl / half screamo, sets the scene for an intense and powerful thrash. The luminous then Dantesque double solo shows the writing talent and the virtuosity of Chris Cesari on the guitar.

You will have understood, Heart Attack offers much more than a thrash in the style of Metallica. It explores much more extensive areas of metal by looking at Behemoth or Machine Head, but also Opeth "Deliverance" period on some riffs, and much of the modern side of current metal by incorporating some codes of djent without falling into the caricature. In each note, each riff, each growl, each drum hit, the personality of the band hits the listener and transpires from their music at every moment, making it unique and already recognizable between thousand.

Among the main tracks, and even if it is difficult to detach some so much the overall impression is homogeneous, let's mention 'Wings Of Jugement' for the depth of its development, 'World Consomption' for the power of its thrash in the Megadeath style, 'The Messenger' for its hypnotic mid tempo, and the eponymous title 'Negative Sun' whose intensity, reminding Ghost Brigade, is a synthesis of all that has just been described. Let us insist finally on the exceptional quality of the soli which illuminate each title bringing a totally unexpected variety and a rhythmic/melodic contrast which appears as a signature of the group. These aerial instrumental phases also shine by their masterly writing and by the great variety of styles that Chris Cesari manages to interpret. Some of them are pure magic.

I can already see some of you grumbling when you see the maximum note but don't be mistaken: "Negative Sun" contains all the ingredients to become a must-have of 2022 in a genre often sclerotised by stereotypes. Heart Attack breaks the codes by multiplying the influences to dust off the traditional thrash and to breathe a wind of saving freshness into it. Add to that an impeccable production and you get an album not to be missed. - Official website

HEART ATTACK

NEGATIVE SUN

ATOMIC FIRE RECORDS

HEAVY METAL