HEATHEN

Release Year: 1999
Artist Origin: USA
Style: furious technical speed thrash metal

legendary debut album [1987] from these underrated yet awesome and rocking Bay Area speed/thrash metal freaks certainly stands out in a stream of fast-paced records of the era: a reckoning force back then was led by guitar team of Lee Altus [Exodus] and Doug Piercy, bashing together incredibly intricate riffs and amazing solos, also injecting a lot of technical exuberance and progressive structures in their complex and challenging music, while David Godfrey's vocal delivery was cleaner and more melodic, giving the album a unique and diverse feel to it, where songs can evolve into sweeping seven minute long dramas; quite rare German edition comes with booklet, enhanced by David White's liner notes and a bunch of vintage pictures, as well as initial four track Pray for Death demo [1986] as bonus