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REVIEW: King Leviathan - Paean Heretica






King Leviathan are a blackened thrash metal quartet from Brighton UK. In 2015 they unleashed their successful and well-received EP ‘The Shrine’ so expectations and anticipation is high for their full-length debut ‘Paean Heretica’. The album is their darkest and heaviest yet and explores many morbid and difficult themes.

Opening track ‘Primitive Baptism’ is crushing with slick and brilliant production which runs throughout the album. The vehement vocals paired with the striking clean melodic lines make quite the impression and is a colossal way to start.

Next up is the storming single ‘Sanctification’ which is hefty with massive beastly riffs and solo guitar work, this is perfect for mosh pit antics. Their talent shines in mighty bursts of power, with the right balance of sinister sounds and hopefulness, helped by the non-screamed vocals. The song is inspired by the first crusade launched by Pope Urban the second to retake the Holy Land and the countless slaughter that was left in its wake, and covers the story from the perspective of the crusaders after their deaths, so there is a lot of lyrical heaviness and depth explored through this.

‘Kingdom’ explores a much darker and different territory than we have seen from the band previously, with the most brutal growls so far and the result is sublime in this dark belting non-stop number. This has a huge and epic feel to it, aided by intense guitars and shredding and sees them at the forefront of the black thrash genre.

‘Agony’ again features impressive fierce vocals and overpowering riffs, with the tamer moments only emphasising their brutality and eerie side further, making for a winning formula of evil and well-crafted musicianship. ‘Doomsayer’ keeps the immense sounds going in their signature style that they have honed in and mastered wonderfully since their ‘Shrine’ EP.

The bleak ‘Coffin Swallower’ is forcible with short angry bursts which are then accompanied by dual contrasting clean vocals which work brilliantly, with pounding drum work and varied skilled guitars throughout.

‘Harrowing Eyes’ is one of the most belligerent offerings and will go down a treat in the live setting, which the band thrive in. This has a haunting and chilling feel to it through the instrumentation and atmosphere building in suspense and power, closing in a tremendous way.

‘Like Wolves To The Throat Of The Lion’ is one of the longest songs featured bar the closer ‘The Grand Congregation’ which goes through the motions and is an abundance of impressive aggressive and melodic vocals, skilful insane guitars, meticulous drums and a dark looming atmosphere. This encompasses all the best and massive elements for the closer, showing just how talented and how far they have come in just two years.

They have truly exceeded themselves with this monstrous debut, which is their most diverse, mature and textured material to date. The ambience and production is excellently executed and this should appease the old gods and the new as the band would say, especially with their classic thrash/metal sound crossover with modern heavy hitting black metal, there is something for every metal head and it will be exciting to see what lies ahead in the dark mysterious shadows for the band in the future.



Listen to new single 'Sanctification below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_DigIT5K00




‘Paean Heretica’ will be the first release via new independent label Infernum Records and will be physically available on August 5th, 2017 and can be ordered via the label website: infernum.co.uk



For more on King Leviathan:

https://www.facebook.com/KingLeviathanMetal?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/KingLeviathanUK

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