Review: King Leviathan – Paean Heretica

King Leviathan are a band that have been kicking around the West Coast for quite a while, topping the bills of many gigs where my friends have played. When their full length debut Paean Heretica became available to review, I took the opportunity straight away and whacked it on. Having never caught them live (with no excuse), I largely went into the record blind of any expectations.

While they’re listed as “blackened thrash metal” I reckon I can hear parts of melodic metalcore bands such as Killswitch Engage, Trivium and a bit of Lamb Of God as well as a metric shit-ton of doom all over this release. Sounds pretty good right? It is nine songs long, all sitting between four and seven minutes (bar one at three and a half), finishing with the epic “The Grand Congregation”. While they have released The Shrine and their self-titled EP two years prior to this, Paean Heretica is their debut full length album. A recurring theme throughout this review is how strong a debut this is, from the tracklisting, to the lyricism, to the fact that both halves have their own identities. You’ll probably get pretty sick of me praising them for all of the above, but it is true!

The record begins with perhaps the most rhythmically interesting track, launching us headfirst into what it is King Leviathan are trying to do on “Primitive Baptism”. For quite a while you can sit through the song with nothing to complain about; crunching vocals, remorseful guitar tones and double pedal bravado transitioning easily into light airy sections, everything expected from a contemporary metal band of this ilk. The first minute or so is also where the Lamb Of God influence is most striking, but just after that mark the clean vocals come in and on my first listen through I find them very jarring when placed next to the harsh back-of-the-throat singing. The two styles of singing play alongside each other in a very similar manner to Killswitch Engage though King Leviathan do so with a much vaster contrasting tone to each voice. I found it took several listens through the record for the style to become familiar and even moreso for any of the music to really stick with me. What I mean by this is that there are so many ideas to Paean Heretica that it does take quite some time for them to really sink in. To their credit, this is a fantastic feat to achieve on a debut record.

This moves into lead single “Sanctification” which serves as an excellent follow-up to the opening track with a breakneck effort from the rhythm section alongside my favourite chorus of the album in the lines “blessed and fed to the vultures” and “we descend into despair/our sanctification of lies”. That has lodged itself in my brain for years to come! Vocalist Adam Sedgwick has said this song was “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 “whether the crusaders found redemption in following their faith so blindly, or were they tricked into committing acts of reprehensible brutality to appease a loathsome god”. When writing the track, the band focused on the story of the crusaders after their passing “trapped and facing the unending horror of what they performed over and over again, forever being punished, and baring the weight of their betrayal”. As far as lyrics go, that is inspired, creative and brave for a first full length outing and the band should be praised for it in a world of often bland words-put-over-music.

The third track “Kingdom” shows off their thrash influence, contrasting to its’ successor “Agony”, translating a hopelessly forlorn message, ascending into lyrics being spat out the speakers at the tail end of the chorus which shows their sincerity in their songwriting here particularly. “Doomsayer” is naturally heavier than anything prior to it on the album, beginning with dissonant guitar-work leading into a mid-tempo desperate rambling in “why won’t you hear me/I feel their eyes mocking me”, highlighting their strength in lyrics again. All across the album they have done a fantastic job in “painting the picture” of self-loathing and outward hostility to a disfigured society. It’s absolutely remarkable, on a debut nonetheless too!

Going into the final half of the record, the likes of “Like Wolves To The Throat Of A Lion” and “The Grand Congregation” showcase a far more progressive side to the band. With complex arrangements and drawn out, spacious songwriting, I think I prefer these tracks to the shorter, punchier songs at the beginning of the record. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say I’ve enjoyed both halves of an album. It seems King Leviathan are a band of many ideas but they have been wise enough on Paean Heretica to not overdo it and water down the ideas on both halves. Equally they have spaced the record really well with stronger tracks and like I said earlier, they are clearly a band that knows what they’re doing.

When given several listens to familiarise oneself with the style King Leviathan have moulded for themselves, it becomes evident that the band must’ve taken some time in deciding the track order particularly as the record has a brilliant sense of continuation and flow to it to the point where you can hear all the time and effort that has gone into the record. Again, for a debut this is a brilliant accomplishment.

King Leviathan on Paean Heretica are noticeably several steps ahead of the game with their contemporaries. The record is a smart, intelligent response to what is and what was and I’m certain they’ll make the stride from really good to excellent on the next release.

Paean Heretica will be the first release via new independent label Infernum Records out on August 5th.

For Brighton locals, the band are performing an album launch show at The Hope & Ruin on its release date with support from Vehement, Krysthla and Hole In The Sky.

King Leviathan: facebook | twitter | youtube | bandcamp | bigcartel

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