Bookended by a spoken intro and a piano/soprano outro, Saint-Etienne based
Heavylution’s second EP “
The Architect” is a harbinger of promising things to come. The songs are highly catchy both in terms of the music and the choruses; the first time I listened to the album I found myself humming “Dehumanization” all day. Admittedly there are only four full tracks, but they each have their own personality, they flow well and you can genuinely feel that a lot of heart went into them.
Metal seems to course through this band’s veins, as if they had received intrauterine doses of the classics. As early as 2006, while still in high school, Paul Eysette and Franck Cessiecq were composing and playing songs infused with some of the heavy hitters of the NWOBHM
Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and German legends such as Gammaray and
Kreator, to produce a blend of thrash and heavy metal with an unmistakable French twist.
Heavylution released their first demo album “
Metal Is Our
Blood” in 2008. According to reviews, “
The Architect” shows the clear evolution and professionalization of the group; a transition from playing as a group of school friends to opening for Maiden’s Paul Di Anno in 2010. Also in 2010 in order to devote himself entirely to his singing Paul put down the guitar. On “
The Architect,” new guitarist Olivier Dupont, lends his talent to the album; clearly no ego war exists between Olivier and Franck who play together perfectly.
The rhythm section’s influences are decidedly more oriented towards pure thrash and death; drummer Laurent Descours’ blast beats are a testimony to this and a pleasant contrast to the melodic riffing and singing. Alexis Suede’s bass begs to be heard more to give a heavier backbone to the whole. In general the album lacks an aggressive edge which would take it from good classic heavy metal to something genuinely original.
It is sometimes hit or miss to sing in a language that is not your own, but in the case of
Heavylution the lyrics are not only poetic, they are also grammatically correct, which is important when you are writing songs in which what is sung actually has meaning. Paul’s slight French accent in English is not a handicap to the overall output - on the contrary it’s pretty sexy.
My only small gripe with “
The Architect,” confirmed by the videos of
Heavylution’s live performances that I have seen, is what I perceive as the overpowering presence of Paul’s singing. While I like his style and the range of his vocals, as well as finding him charismatic both on stage and recorded, I am frustrated not to hear more of Franck and Olivier’s shredding. In their future endeavors, I am confident that the band will find the happy medium between the vocals and the instruments...
Lyrically
The Architect is full-on in keeping with heavy metal themes such as the rejection of traditional society, forces beyond our control, introspection, paranoia... Only the second to last tune optimistically incites us to “Keep Going!” A great deal of thought and attention to professional detail went into the group’s logo and the artwork of “
The Architect” designed by Pavel Sokolov. It is on a par with many album covers I have seen in the past year, if not better.
In short, “
The Architect” is chock full of talent, excellent musicianship and compositions. I look forward to more in
2012!
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