Review by Michael on June 26, 2025.

"Heimat" is a German word that can have many meanings in English. So it can stand for "homeland", "home city" or "home" whatever this might be for the one or the other. Maybe it is a place where you prefer to be, the time you spend with your friends or something completely different. What often goes along with the term "Heimat" (at least here in Germany) is a negative connotation with the word because quite often it is used in more or less right-winged circles and doesn't mean too many pleasant things in my eyes. Unfortunately quite often "Heimat" means something that refers to the "German Race" and all the things that came along with that elitist race shit from 1933 (yes, of course that fuck existed already before) on and brought devastation over the whole world. And even more unfortunately this shit becomes more and more socially acceptable once again.

Heaven Shall Burn (who come from Thuringia, one of the federal states in Germany where the right-winged Nazi-party AFD got 32,8% too many votes in the last election) have provocatively called their 10th full-length album "Heimat" and not enough to call this album that way, the beautiful German landscape is burning and one of the most significant German animals, the deer, is screaming in anguish. May it be a metaphor for the decline of social values or whatever, this is a clear statement by the band that is always positioned against fascism.

And so does the music. Were they heavily influenced by bands such as Bolt Thrower, Entombed or Earth Crisis on their previous albums, they have put on some more melodic parts this time. Still the songs kick goddamn ass and are super aggressive, but the guitar leads are sometimes more like In Flames (but not that pussy-like as they got after "Lunar Strain"). A good example for that is "Confounder" which turned out into a super-groovy melo-death track. Here and there are some heavy Bolt Thrower blast beat attacks but that's just marginally.

When I heard "Empowerment" for the first time, I had to smile because I wanted to sing "Moootheeer" while walking in the streets. The intro is just a pure copy of that fabulous Danzig song but after some seconds the reference is over and we get to hear another melodic deathcore song with some catchy lines.

"War Is The Father Of All" kicks off with some orchestral vibes and reminds me personally of a good song by Machine Head. This groove, the guitars and the aggressive basic vibes really kick ass. It starts creeping but increases the tempo in the circa 7 minutes more and more. That's a track which could have been on "Burn My Eyes" or "The Blackening", too.

"Numbered Days" is a very brutal cover of Killswitch Engages' song from their "Alive Or Just Breathing" album from 2002. It is very close to the original but I would dare to say that it is even some nuances heavier and with Jesse Leach they have the Killswitch Engage vocalist with a  guest appearance. By the way, this is maybe the most "metalcore" song on "Heimat".

For all the guys who liked the more Bolt Thrower-like influences, there are also some heavier songs on the album like "Ten Days In May" (which is a fast galloping track with many blast beats) or "Dora" that is a very gloomy, creeping track with really a lot of Bolt Thrower vibes.

This album has become a great piece of music and actually I refuse to call it metalcore. There are more death metal parts in here as on many so-called death metal bands nowadays. And apart from the music the band once again has released a significant statement against racism which seems to be more important from day to day in these dark times.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10