When looking at the Travis Smith-ish cover and reading about Havok's "inventive death metal", I was 100% sure, that another crappy metalcore band was born. But for my huge amazement, Havok mostly fire death metal, and it actually is that much different, that it can be called even a bit unusual at times. This Swedish band (there's three Havoks doing rounds in metal music circles at the moment) formed only in 2005 and after a demo, a single and an EP, they have released their debut album 'Being and Nothingness'.

After a sitar intro, that feels nothing but a obligatory peculiarity, the blasting begins. Influences from North American death metal together with Swedish branch (plus some Nordic melodiousness on 'Stormfeed') are bound into twisting and brutal maiming shining with some nice technicality. Slithering Mid-Eastern influence and some prog elements animate Havok's death metal beyond the realms of death. Surely, no element is special, but Havok have still managed to create some characteristic music, as this vicious amalgamation of, let's say Dying Fetus and Insision, spiced up with some Mastodon / Gojira style gritty riffage, manifests (as 'Century of the Deviant' most strongly proves). One thing that Havok cannot do is to make this album roll on well enough. It is not the question about long songs, no, but generally the material might get a little bit too stalled at times. Even though the band have quite a lot of different styles in their music, it still does not feel too exciting. Piano instrumental 'Monologue with the Sky' is there just to break the flow of the same, just like over a minute of bird song at the end of 'Stormfeed'.

The message of the lyrics can be cropped into "believe what you see (the Earth), not what they say you should see (the God)." So, it's Gaia metal, then?! The production is organic and heavy, so it can kick some ass at its best. 'Being and Nothingness' is definitely promising, but it doesn't claim all the promises it created at the first few spins. It was not that adventurous after all. But worth investigating if earthy death metal (?!) interests you.

Rating: 6+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
07/29/2009 20:11