Band: Heavenwood
Title: Abyss Masterpiece
Label: Listenable Records
Distribution: Suburban
Release date: March 14th 2011
Review: CD

Portuguese formation Heavenwood was originally formed as Disgorged in 1992. The late nineties -in mean time the band changed its moniker into the current one- saw the release of two full lengths, both on Massacre Records: Diva and Swallow. Both of them were welcomed with open arms by the European audience – a sell of over 40,000 copies isn’t that bad at all, is it?! The success of the band got translated into huge touring with bands like Theatre Of Tragedy, Atrocity and In Flames – Heavenwood, by the way, were the first Portuguese band ever to perform live on the famous festival Wacken Open Air (1998, based on the well-appreciated second full length).
Unfortunately things didn’t work out that well. Especially within the band, things went wrong, resulting in a lack of interest by some members, and several line-up changes as consequence to it – even a short break happened during the early 2000’s.
Ten years after the second studio album, the band finally returned with Redemption (Recital Records) (2008), which got reviewed pretty positively as well, and after signing to ListenAble Records, the fourth full length studio recording, Abyss Masterpiece, is a fact.
Abyss Masterpiece lasts for an hour and in comparison to Redemption, this fourth full length is a little heavier. Still the Gothic / Dark Metal sounds enormously catchy and certainly not too complex, in spite of the many layers. The production is full and professional, even though I think that this sound is too clean (not overproduced). The connection with Doom Metal, Doom-Death and even Black Metal, yet also with Gothic Rock and modern Atmospheric Metal, comes back whole the time. In some cases I do like it, but sometimes it is much too nerdy. Especially the semi-poppy parts are infantile and make me nauseous. The most extreme parts (unfortunately these are too few), and several other pieces (both the melancholic and up-tempo ones) aren’t that wrong at all, and more than once the band surprises me.
The band creates an own sound (and that’s a positive asset), even though many Doom / Dark / Gothic / Electronic / … Metal / Rock bands come to mind. Consider it a self-made mixture of, let’s say, everything between Paradise Lost (post-Draconian Times-period), Orphanage, Shadowgarden, Samael (era as from the second part of the nineties), Moonspell, Type O Negative, Diablerie and Poema Arcanvs.

72/100

Ivan Tibos.