HEAVEN BELOW – Good Morning Apocalypse [Deluxe Edition +10]
“Good Morning Apocalypse” is the first HEAVEN BELOW album for Dave Ellefson’s EMP Label Group and features some high profile guests. These include Lita Ford, Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys), Udo Dirkschneider (Accept), Kobra Paige (Kobra and the Lotus), and several others.
Heavy guitars, powerful and totally in-your-face vocals with a strong solid rhythm section… Heaven Below have the whole package to become big. The choruses are big, loud, and stick to your mind at once, and the guitar lines are tasteful with some ‘crazy’ solos.
This Deluxe Edition offers an ‘extra album’ of re-worked songs, acoustic versions, live, and one album’s outtake.
Heaven Below achieve to mix perfectly the late ’80s hard rock spirit with a modern, powerful punchy attack, and the result is simply explosive. “Good Morning Apocalypse” revolves around a concept of a dark future, but there isn’t a specific story and you can enjoy each track separately.
Musically, this hard rock in foundation with a hard n’ heavy sound, all glued with a bit of a modern twist.
From the essentials of melody, harmony, and groove, it’s evident that they reach back to classic bands in the genre inspiration.
The modern sound come from the lead vocals, but always influenced by the greats. Or may have an edge taken off with the female accompaniment within ‘Devilina and the Damage Done’ (duet with Kobra Paige from Kobra and the Lotus) and ‘Running Under Satan’s Hand’ with Lita Ford.
‘Black Sunrise War Of The Gods’ (feat. UDO) is one of the album’s highlights. With a more down-to-earth sound and with Mr. Dirkscheider on guest vocals as the cherry on top this track grabs you at once. The excellent theatrical elements here are givin’ an extra flavor.
Another surprise comes with the operatic soprano voice of Mary Whitman within ‘Among The Wolves / Worldwide Suicide’. Otherwise, lead vocalist Patrick Kennison can be quite raging as within that song or ‘Killing The Deadman’, for example.
To the guitar parts, they develop from a twin guitar foundation. While the twin guitar harmony emerges throughout, the riffage easily steals a page from traditional metal and its blistering fury. Nevertheless, from the brazen riffs flow an abundance of fiery guitar solos, also common to the classic metal form, not necessarily so for some modern acts.
Not dismissing the rhythm section (which is very booming), by any means, but “Good Morning Apocalypse” is a very guitar forward across the board.
“Good Morning Apocalypse” is a very strong album from Heaven Below, a quite different beast in the current scene. They sound modern but the music foundation is very classic. Even the artwork is pretty ’80s reminiscent.
At places the vocals were a bit too raging for me (however work perfectly with the music), but for modern metal well-founded in traditional metal, this likely one of the best albums you’ll hear this year.
Upbeat and ‘ballsy’ modern melodic hard n’ heavy is the key here, with tons of attitude that will impress many people out there.
Highly Recommended
01 – Nefarious Angels (feat Jason McMaster)
02 – Renegade Protest Movement
03 – Follow Me Under
04 – Devilina and the Damage Done (feat Kobra Paige)
05 – Nightfall Comes to Life
06 – Killing the Deadman
07 – Running Under Satan’s Hand (feat Lita Ford)
08 – Death Battalion
09 – Bonded by Blood
10 – Black Sunrise / War of the Gods (feat Udo Dirkschneider)
11 – Among the Wolves / Worldwide Suicide
12 – I Would Do It All Again / Burials at Sunset
BONUS TRACKS:
13 – Nefarious Angels (Live)
14 – Death Battalion (Live)
15 – Killing the Deadman (Live)
16 – Circle of the Dead (Outtake)
17 – Bonded by Blood (Reimagined)
18 – Nightfall Comes to Life (Reimagined)
19 – Renegade Protest Movement (Unplugged)
20 – Devilina and the Damage Done (Unplugged)
21 – When Daylight Dies (Unplugged)
22 – I Would Do It All Again / King of Nothing (Unplugged)
Patrick Kennison (Lita Ford Band) – Vocals, Guitars
Lucas Kanopa – Guitars
John Younger – Bass
Shad Wilhelm – Drums
guests Vocals:
Lita Ford on 7
Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys) on 1
Udo Dirkscheider (Accept) on 10
Kobra Paige (Kobra and the Lotus) on 4
BUY IT
www.amazon.com/Good-Morning-Apocalypse-Deluxe-Explicit/dp/B07HCKYZ3Y
