Hevein - Sound Over Matter

[Liu]

Hevein - Sound Over Matter
Candlelight

Sound Over Matter is the debut album by the finnish Hevein, and it shows much promise. The band borrows liberally from several sources, but have their own little niche to make them stand out from other melodic death/goth/mallcore bands. I use this description simply because the band is in a state of an identity crisis.

You have your Soilwork-type songs in Break Out The Hammers, Worth Fighting For and Bleed The Day. Then there's Hold Fast that sounds like a Fear Factory song. Last Drop Of Innocence would have fit in well on Amorphis' Am Universum album. And you got iOta, which brings to mind Papa Roach of all bands. On the band's website they admit to wanting mainstream exposure, so the fact that iOta has been released as a single is not surprising.

As good as these songs are (trust me, they are), the fact that the band doesn't have a focused direction yet really softens the impact of the material and keeps it out of reach of being outstanding. The one thing Hevein has going for them is that they have a real life violinist and celloist within the band as opposed to just some guy behind a keyboard. The band truly shines when the string section is given the forefront, producing the majority of the album's memorable moments. I hope on future albums they'll have the good sense to further develop this element of the band, because otherwise they'll just sink in a sea full of a hundred other similiar sounding bands.


01. Break Out The Hammers
02. Worth Fighting For
03. iOta
04. As Far As The Eye Can See
05. Only Human
06. Bleed The Day
07. Beg To Differ
08. Hold Fast
09. New Hope
10. Last Drop Of Innocence

Score: 6/10