Label: Revalve Records

Date: March 20th, 2020

The Great Fall. No, it doesn’t have anything with Peter Handke’s book. It has a lot with Italian Death Metal trio Helion.

Helion was formed in Bergamo, Italy, in 2009 by guitarist and vocalist, Massimiliano Cirelli. As Max Cirelli, he is an active member of Hiss from the Moat, and in the past he used to be a guitar player in Integral. Besides him, Helion are bassist  Andrea Cividini who is also known as Andrea “Maxi Gusto” “Bob Heroine” Cividini as a Taste Hematic Chain band member and Alessandro Francesco Caruso, drummer. As a guest musician, Fabio Bartoletti (Fleshgod Apocalypse) joined Helion on “Heliopolis: Dawn of the New Age”.

Although formed in 2009, Helion released the first EP “Duat’s Calling” in 2015. The second one, “Promo EP” was released in December 2016, and in July 2019, Helion delivered “Legacy of the Serpent”.

The Technical Death Metal trio in March 2020 delivered a full length album “The Great Fall” with the support of Revalve Records. If you pay attention to the album art cover, you will realize Hellion is not one of those bands you will easily forget. Yes, it is hard to be innovative in 2020 in the field of Death Metal (or is it in each sub-genre?), but Helion offers an interesting concept. Lyrics focused mostly on Egyptian mythology are enough to draw my attention. Some of the lyrics’ titles strictly reveal its thematic, for example “Aten Rising” or “Heliopolis”.

In a few words, “The Great Fall” delivers insane guitar riffing and solos as well as phenomenal production. Melodic parts collided with brutal riffing interwoven with acoustic parts bring well balanced contrast.

What you may not have expected from Death Metal band is… An opera! Characteristic for some other metal genres, but certainly not for Death Metal, “The Great Fall” in three acts is that X factor you might be searching for. 

Overall, lyrically and musically, “The Great Fall” is a very complex album leaned on great production. Lyrics are the treasure of knowledge based on the mythology of ancient civilizations.

The only negative aspect of this album might be the vocals that might be more deep, brutal or aggressive, but that is only my subjective opinion, feel free to ignore it. 

Highly recommended for Necrophagist, Oppressor or Spawn of Possession fans.