As Flaming Wrekage’s brutal fourth album tickles your earholes, you know this is something special. …
Since its very beginnings, thrash metal has tackled the darker aspects of everyday existence.
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The hypocrisy and corruption of the ruling elite, degradation of the environment, the futility and horror of war: all of these are subjects that appear throughout thrash metal’s expansive canon. Breakdown and collapse of society and civilisation itself is a topic that almost every thrash band has explored. The current state of the world is something thrash has been predicting for decades.
“We’ve been singing about it, because we knew it was coming!” Heathen vocalist Dave White says, with a laugh. “We didn’t know it would happen in our lifetime, necessarily. And here it is, right? It’s very heavy metal, for sure.”
Like modern-day Cassandras, of course, those predictions were ignored by a mainstream culture who wasn’t interested in such dire warnings. Thrash metal – metal in general – was too extreme, too noisy, too dark, and often just seen to be too dumb, to be taken seriously by a society fascinated by celebrity scandals, screwball comedies, RomComs and reality TV.
“And that’s why they don’t want to play us on the radio,” White continues, “because they only want to hear about ‘Baby, baby, baby’ and ‘Where’s your booty?’ It’s bullshit. While so many heavy metal bands are writing about things that matter, and substance. We didn’t know we’d be the ones giving the warning, but there you go. But now it’s coming back to bite us, because we can’t play live now because of this shit – because nobody listened!”
Heathen has been there from the start, spawned during the early 80s Bay Area thrash metal explosion that also created Exodus, Testament, Death Angel, Vio-lence and Forbidden. White’s traditional singing technique was a point of contrast in a scene dominated with harsher and more guttural vocal styles and they did in fact manage to attain minor local radio airplay, albeit for a Rainbow cover. Their latest album Empire of the Blind is their second since re-activating from an eight year hiatus for the legendary Thrash of the Titans cancer benefit show in 2001, and their fourth overall. When it comes to records, the San Franciscans aren’t exactly prolific, but sharing guitarists with other active bands hasn’t helped. Founding member Lee Altus is also a member of Exodus, and Heathen’s other guitarist Kragen Lum also toured with them as Gary Holt’s stand-in while Holt played in Slayer.
“Evolution of Chaos came out in 2010 and we toured a lot in the three years after that, but then Kragen was filling in for Gary with Exodus, so there’s not a lot I can do with both my guitar players gone,” White says, although there was something of an upside to that arrangement, as it turned out. “In that time, Kragen was writing most of Empire of the Blind, so that when things started to wind down with Exodus, we had the opportunity to go in and record.”
The band headed into the studio in late 2019, with Lum acting as “sort of an overseer on the project”, and the in-demand Zeuss in the control room. It was Heathen’s first time working with the acclaimed producer, whose list of credits is far too long to include here.
He started writing songs for the new record, and it just became a monster. Next thing he began writing lyrics, and then he had a full album! We just got out of the way and let Kragan do it.
[ Dave White ]
“We recorded at his house in Massachusetts,” White says. “Leading up to it, I didn’t know him. Lee had met him several times. He’s really well known and he’s done a lot of great records and, well, what’s that going to be like? That added to the pressure, but he ended up being just another buddy of mine. But he’s a master behind the board.”
White recorded his parts in two sessions, during the first of which he came down with throat problems that restricted his ability to use his higher register.
“I had about a week and a half [there] before I left to recover, and then it was just residual stuff on my vocal chords. So the heavier stuff, I did that while I was still getting over it, and anything that took effort, the high ranges and stuff like that, I saved for when I came back in November. Then Lee joined me and did his tracking.”
Empire of the Blind retains the Heathen reputation for thrash with melodic and progressive leanings. Zeuss worked proactively with them, his production adding a modern feel without detracting from their trademark style.
“All the different records he’s done, they don’t all sound the same. He knows how to bring out the best in each band, or each artist, so whether he’s working with Queensrÿche, or Hatebreed, or Rob Zombie or Heathen, he’s listening to us and what we want,” White says of the producer. “And that’s what a good producer does, when he can understand what they’re striving for, and take it up a notch.”
Guitarist Kragen Lum was the force behind Empire of the Blind. While on the road with Exodus, he began working on a few ideas that soon turned into a complete album. All the rest of the band had to do was fill in the blanks with their own contributions.
“During the time, while he was touring with Exodus – and even before that – he started writing songs for the new record, and it just became a monster. Next thing he began writing lyrics, and then he had a full album! We just got out of the way and let Kragan do it. He gave us the roadmap and we did our homework and then got in the studio.”
Now, of course, all they can do is ride out the pandemic like everyone else. Without the ability to play live, there is a chance that another Heathen album might appear before too much longer.
“This is a good opportunity to write another one,” says White. “Because otherwise we’d have been busy now. We should be on tour, but we’re not. We would have had a busy summer, and hopefully Fall and winter, promoting the record. This gives us an opportunity to shock the fans and come up with a record a little quicker this time.”
Getting together to write and record might prove difficult for the Heathen crew right now, though. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, White packed up his family and their dog and moved from Oakland to Florida to be closer to his in laws. The rest of the band are scattered all around the US.
“I’m in Florida, our drummer Jim DeMaria’s in New York. He’s a nurse working with COVID patients. Kragan’s in Arkansas, Lee’s in the Bay area and Jason [Mirza]’s in LA. So when things calm down and there’s something we need to rehearse for, when we have a purpose, I’ve said that they should all come here to Florida, stay with me, bring the family. The families could all go to the beach during the day and then we can go out to the studio in the evening and work on stuff.”
Only time will tell if and when Heathen can get together in the same room again. Whatever the future brings for the band, Dave White counts himself lucky they have been able to achieve as much as they have so far.
“A lot of bands don’t get the opportunity that we had. This is only our fourth record overall, and it would be good to have five more in the catalogue, but that’s just the way it is. I still feel fortunate, because I know musicians who are amazing that have never done a record, never done a tour, and I can’t imagine that. I feel lucky every day.”
