Customer Reviews

Sound Over Matter

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Even if heavy metal is outside your usual listening spectrum, this is worth hearing. The style draws from several sub-genres: the speed and power of thrash, the big, spacious mixes of power-metal, the growling vocals and dark themes of death-metal. In a sublime alchemy, the result is something more than any of these, in a class totally by itself.

Every time I listen to this album after I haven't heard it in a while, I am amazed again at how good it is. The writing and arranging is innovative and expressive. The lyrics are not only meaningful, but for the most part they are intelligible as well--something rare in metal of any kind, especially where the gutteral, growling style of vocals is used. The voices on Sound Over Matter are a highly effective mix of clean and growling styles. The instrumentation is unique: electric guitar and bass guitar, drum kit, cello, and violin. The musicianship is first rate and the production is excellent.

The thing that's hard to believe is that Sound Over Matter is the debut album for Hevein! This is a highly polished and sophisticated piece of art, and the superb craftsmanship that went into it only adds to its raw power and intense emotional impact.

If I'd made a list of everything I like best about my favorite music and told some conjurer to bring me an album made to order, Sound Over Matter would be it. It offers superb musicianship, an unusual mix of instruments and styles, lots of dynamic and textural contrast, power and beauty, passion and objectivity, creative and meaningful lyrics, and it manages to be totally unpredictable without losing itself in chaos.

Sound Over Matter is full of dramatic contrast. From the Break Out the Hammers, with it's pounding drums and growling vocals and pure speed-metal guitar break alternating (sometimes layered) with clean vocals and smooth, melodic cello and violin, to Last Drop of Innocence with its slow, rather eerie cello and soprano intro, followed by a fast heavy bass line underlying smooth, restrained, sometimes almost whispered clean tenor vocals, with steadily building musical tension that makes your heart-rate go up right along with it, then the thickening of the mix and the growling response to the clean chorus, at every turn this album is full of surprises. The lyrics are thoughtful, clever, with plenty of passion but also hints of maturity, wisdom, and a certain dry humor. Anther favorite track is Beg to Differ with its fat, chunky heavy metal rhythm and dramatic contrast between the clean tenor and growling bass vocals, and some unexpected contrasts between vocal tone and lyric content that I won't give away here. And I have to mention the heart-breakingly beautiful cello and acoustic guitar instrumental New Hope.

If you like the European neo-classical/symphonic/heavy-metal family of genres, or if you just enjoy unique, dramatic, powerful music of any kind, do yourself a favor and check out Sound Over Matter.