Heretic - Words to Epilogues album review

To start off, Heretic is an alternative metal band from Cochin/Bangalore formed in 2005, and named after the fearless Greek who was burnt alive for voicing out his opinion. The name actually goes well with their music since there are a lot of alternative rock/metal haters out there. To be honest, I didn’t know much about them till recently, when a random friend shared their music video. And that’s when I dug a little deeper to find this wonderful album!

To find out a little more about their past, I searched for other videos of Heretic on Youtube. Heretic, like most bands in India (and abroad, I guess), have come up following a common route, starting off with the usual Metallica covers, taking part in local gigs with bad sounds etc and then rising to fame. But that doesn't matter now, does it? Heretic are popular, have an album to their name, and qualify the one point that actually matters - they make good music.

The band also launched a 3 song EP titled 'Reprised' back in 2008, consisting the tracks Reprise, Bleed to Heal, and Slaves and the System, all 3 of which are present on their debut album as well.

Dec 2012 made a mark on their band calendar with the release of their debut album - Words to Epilogues. Here's what I liked and didn't like about the album 

What I liked - 

• The Sound - Fantastic mix! The guitars have a crunching sound, the drums sound so crisp it feels like they have Remo Emperor skins on, and its an equal win with the vocals/bass as well. Not too surprised when I learnt that Keshav Dhar from Skyharbor produced this..
• The Vocals - Every band has one (or two) things that make them stand out, and I feel it's the vocals with Heretic. The mix of soothing melodic singing and a Trivium/Killswitch Engage style growls while bringing in some classical elements similar to Suraj Mani of Motherjane is simply phenomenal, and I sure as hell want to see how well he can pull this off live. Love the emotion through the singing, especially the end of the song 'Ring of Colours', where the word pain is sung with 2 syllables.
• The Genre - I'm trying to compare their music to any other famous band, and I'm still having a hard time placing them. They have the guitar melodies of an alternative act like Creed/Alter Bridge, a lot of core-riffs like As I lay Dying, some new metal influences similar to Killswitch Engage, and finally some odd time signatures and melodic vocals like A Perfect Circle.
• The Video - For the song 'Thoughts'. This is so professional, even the biggies can actually take a lesson or two here! Credits to Munz Photography, Clint Soman Photography and Sunny Sawrav for making this.

What I didn't like - 

• The Scale - I'm a sucker to melodies, but many of their songs are on the standard minor-scales, which tends to get repetitive/predictable after a while. However, there are many scale changes, intermediate notes/chords that make up for this.
• The Riffs - I think this came out wrong. I love most of the riffs, but almost every song has a core-riff, which is something of the sort (guitarists can understand me better here)

E -------------------------------------------

B -------------------------------------------

G -------------------------------------------

D -------------------------------------------

A ------5---7-------8---10---8-7-3-5 

D -0-0---0---0-0-0---0----0-----------

Not that this is a bad thing, but it propels the listener into looking at the songs from a core/new age perspective, and I'd prefer not having that opinion.

This is definitely one band to look out for, and if they are able to replicate their songs into equally appreciable live performances, I'd bet my money on them making it big without thinking twice.

The album is available at http://www.oklisten.com/album/words_to_epilogues, and if you liked anything that I mentioned above, I'd recommend you download a copy! And if you still have doubts, give a listen to the song 'Ring of Colours' below, that should change your mind

https://soundcloud.com/hereticindia/09-heretic-ring-of-colours

Rating : 8.5/10