Almost Heathen Review

Released: Aug 7, 2001
Genre: Rock
Styles: Heavy Metal, Hard Rock
Number Of Tracks: 10
Stoner/doom fans and everyone else who appreciates heavy music will all get a thrill from Almost Heathen, a significant hard rock accomplishment.

Sound:	10
Lyrics:	8
Impression:	10
Overall rating:	9.6
Reviewer rating:	9.3
Users rating:	9.9
Votes:	7

overall: 9.3

Reviewed by: smb, on march 10, 2005

Sound: Karma To Burn are a band that lost their record deal after refusing to write lyrics and name their songs. They are totally sure what music they want to play, and grimly determined not to change. Their brand of thrash-grunge meets stoner-doom sounds all the more impressive for the knowledge that this is just an instrumental three-piece. Seeing as the songs are merely assigned numbers (which aren't in order) and there are no lyrics, it is hard to pick out individual songs after a listen to Almost Heathen. But this is one of its main strengths. This is a rock album you can just leave to run, and absorb the serious riffing and be blown away by the power. You're not going to find wild solos, but if you like powerful riffs and the drums being hit pretty damn hard you won't be complaining. // 10

Lyrics and Singing: Not applicable - if singing is what you're after look elsewhere. I personally love instrumental songs, and feel that any singer couldn't improve on these songs: they don't need words! // 8

Impression: Karma To Burn sound similar to Kyuss on Sky Valley or Black Sabbath on, say, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. There's also more than a hint of Nevermind or Metallica's Black Album here. The songs that stand out for me are Thirty-Four and Nineteen, but it's hard to tell why! If you can find the couple of tracks you can download from their record label's site, give them a listen. The album is more of the same, and I've no complaints about that. // 10

Comments

[bigwillie]

Karma to Burn is one of my favorite bands. This album flat out rocks!

[sdstevens]

Almost Heathen is Karma to Burn sounding at their best. This is my favorite of all their albums, including Appalachian Incantation and V, which are both fantastic. I like Heathen the best because of its production. Drums sound killer, guitar is great and of course Rich's monster bass sound. This is the album i listen to the most.