유럽 메탈 코어의 정상, 투쟁과 개혁을 부르짖으며 실천하는 HEAVEN SHALL BURN의 신보! HEAVEN SHALL BURN은 여러분들이 지금까지 들어온 어떤 독일 밴드들보다 강렬하고, 결코 타협하지 않으며 메탈과 하드코어의 경계를 이루고 있는 장벽을 무너뜨리고 있는 밴드로 잘 알려져 있다. MCD IN BATTLE..과 FALL OF SERENITY와의 스플릿 LP를 발매한 후 LIFEFORCE/IMPRESSION MUSIC과 계약하여 2000년 정식 데뷔 앨범 ASUNDER와 함께 같은 해, 자신들의 오랜 친구 CALIBAN과 함께 스플릿 앨범 THE SPLIT PROGRAM을 내놓았는가 하면 전세계 메탈 씬과 하드코어씬 모두를 열광하게 한 2002년 작, WHATEVER IT MAY TAKE로 팬들과 미디어를 사로잡은 바 있다. HEAVEN SHALL BURN만의 독창적인 스타일은 강렬함과 헤비한 음악의 저항할 수 없는 결합과 헌신적이면서도 사회적으로나 정치적으로 명확한 태도로 이루어져 있는데 이들의 새로운 앨범 DEAF TO OUR PRAYERS는 ANTIGONE 발매 이후 2년 만에 선보여지는 모든 팬들이 목말라했던 갈증을 훌륭하게 충족시켜줄 앨범이 될 것이다. 2004년 봄, ANTIGONE 앨범을 발매한 직후 HEAVEN SHALL BURN은 매 주말마다 공연을 가졌고 2004년 가을 헤드라인 투어는 물론 전 유럽에 걸친 페스티발은 물론 지역에서 공연을 가졌다. 2005년 가을에는 AS I LAY DYING, EVERGREEN TERRACE, AGENTS OF MAN, END OF DAYS, NAEREA와 함께 큰 성공을 거두었던 HELL ON EARTH TOUR에서 AS I LAY DYING과 함께 공동 헤드라이너로 활약했는데 투어가 시작되기 직전 기타 PATRICK SCHLEITZER가 자신의 개인적인 생활에 좀 더 충실하고자 밴드를 탈퇴하기도 했다. 하지만 이미 ANTIGONE 앨범에서 게스트 보컬로 참여한 바 있는 ALEXANDER DIETZ를 교체 멤버로 영입한 HEAVEN SHALL BURN은 투어를 마친 직후부터 DEAF TO OUR PRAYERS 앨범 작업을 시작하였고 다시 한번, TH?RINGEN에 위치한 RAPE OF HARMONIES 스튜디오에서 레코딩 작업에 착수하였다. 처음으로 JACOB HANSESN과 그의 HANSEN STUDIOS에서 믹싱 작업을 마친 이들은 '덴마크에서 가장 오래된 도시, RIBE에서 새 앨범에 수록된 모든 곡들의 최고점을 완성하고자 많은 노력을 기울였다. 작곡 과정이 시작되면서 거칠면서도 직선적인 앨범을 완성하려는 목표를 가지게 되었다. 이번 새 앨범은 전작보다 더욱 브루탈하면서도 미드 템포 파트를 동시에 공유하고 있는 100% HSB 앨범이다' 라고 MAIK WEICHERT의 입을 빌어 자신들의 뜻을 밝히고 있다. HEAVEN SHALL BURN의 음악은 단순히 들리는 것처럼 강렬함을 넘어선 사고 思考를 위한 음식이라고 할 수 있다. 앨범 타이틀 DEAF TO OUR PRAYERS는 바로 19세기 유럽 중부에 위치한 실레지아의 공장 노동자들의 당시 현실을 풍자한 HEINRICH HEINE의 시 구절에서 영감을 얻어 지어졌다고 하는데, OF NO AVAIL이나 THE FINAL MARCH 같은 트랙들은 GERHART HAUPTMANN의 희극 THE WEAVERS로부터 영향을 받아 완성되었다고 한다. 특히 19세기 노동자들의 당시 상황, '산업 혁명'에 대한 메세지를 주로 담고 있는 이번 앨범은 '세계화' 라는 명목하에 현 사회가 겪고 있는 개발에 비교될 수 있는 압제적인 평행선을 보여주고 있음은 물론 역사적인 일면까지 다루고 있는데, 수록 곡 ARMIA 는 1944년 폴란드의 바르샤바에서 폴란드 빨치산이 당시 권력에 대항하여 64일 간 투쟁을 벌였던 사건을 노래하고 있기도 하다. 다시 한 번, 이들은 마음의 상처나 부모와의 문제, 또는 '너희들 모두를 죽여버리겠다'라는 식의 주제와는 동떨어져 있으며 '머리로 헤드 뱅잉과 생각을 동시에 할 수 있는 사람들이 분명 있다는 것을 알고 있다. 바로 이것이 우리가 원하는 것이다'라고 HSB 자신들은 말하고 있다. .... ....
Unrelenting, their endeavor to rule lives Teaching you an artificial truth, that you will grieve no more, that you will die no more Narrow minded mercenaries, slave traders, soul collectors Send a promise of destruction to those who will not kneel Derision of the upright ones; as fear devours all doubts
But there are so many things I hold beyond their reach The doom you promised me may come, I'm not afraid
You cannot save me I am the counterweight No need to save me; for I'm the counterweight
Blood trickles away in the sand All hope crushed perished in the border fences of a secure stronghold We crossed this lost world, so much distress we have seen The home we left behind, it offered nothing but despair Under the veil of darkness we marched for endless years Beyond the silver bright horizon a brave new world exists
Trepassing the shores of your world Piles of dead bodies at the walls of Fortress Europe cast a shadow on your paradise Oblivion and apathy will keep you warm
A continent beyond recovery Like dark invaders they receive us A raping wound in the flesh of this earth: a bleeding they refuse to staunch
Loosing touch with reality In your world of plenty its so easy to preach love Holier than thou, your order that shall rule Yet, at the walls of your cathedrals poor sinners strave to death
Ungodly wastefulness and petrified profanity materialized in golden temples Within the walls of Babylon profane believers follow their fateful leaders
This world is up in arms The time has come to bid farewell A true belief will rule Our true belief will rule A pure commitment will blow away an unreal constitution
Consistent, pushing aside all disbelief; Abandon my friends, my home Losing my mother tongue But I will bear this heavy loss Former brothers calling me betrayer And burned the words we wrote I will overcome Solaced by this certainty this delusion will fade
Our words of reason, lost in the roar of the cadence The beacon of humanity, beclouded by their cold, black sun In the scattered light of all your torches his rotten face Seems like a savior's smile to you
An army of lost sons still hidden in the dark A voice of an enslaved nation A force of banished daughters We have to stay the course Consistent, without anguish We may sow the seeds of upheaval just from the outside; But with burning hearts we shall recur
Our words of reason, lost in the roar of the cadence The beacon of humanity, beclouded by their cold, black sun In the scattered light of all your torches his rotten face Seems like a savior's smile to you
This is the call to arms, the final call Exchanged the shuttle for the sword For generations we slaved away in the shadows of their towers The world we know, a torture-chamber Born as servants, exploited til death To their machines were marching with Captain Ludd in mind
The final march begins, down with all the kings The shroud we weave completed The air we breath is not the stench of slavery Down with the king Down with all kings
Winter-withered bodies, souls sunken into misery Our minds and future as black masters hearts Now we engage the enemy; the web we weave completed Can't wait for God to judge those monsters A religion that just mocks us and justifies this misery
Skywards, The prayers we sent, of no avail No fear of death will walk among us Almost too limb to throw the stones Marching into darkness, Bowed down with grief and marked by enslavement
All the prayers we sent, of no avail They went unheard Of no avail, the lives we gave
Our weakened legs and tattered shoes Will cause no sound on icy streets Almost too weak to cry out the spell His servants won't slow down our steps Blood red will be those streets and burning castles we'll leave
All the prayers we sent, of no avail They went unheard Of no avail, the lives we gave
Cursed be the god who was deaf to our prayers Cursed be the god who was deaf to us
As we died in freedom their machines broke down for a day
An insurrection of the lost With courage born from despair An end for the years of anguish A battle in the nation's heart
Uprising of the lost In the abyss between the worlds They all averted their eyes A home behind the enemy's lines
They raped and burned our fatherland We know that nothing shall remain; there's no tomorrow, We'll bring it to an end; there's no tomorrow
Uprising of the lost In the abyss between the worlds They all averted their eyes A home behind the enemy's lines
Our souls scorched with our homes But willful we hold our ground Our souls scorched with our homes But willful we hold our ground; ground
Uprising of the lost In the abyss between the worlds Red vultures awaiting our end A home behind the enemy's lines
Ragged figures but brothers and sisters we are Through fields of debris we crawl Red vultures awaiting our end A home behind the enemy's lines; the enemy's lines
Are you still the on I used to know? Where is the fire in your eyes? Do you remember all the things we used to share? Your strong words gave hope to me so many times But now there's only silence when we meet
Chorus: These are the darkest of your days, where are your thousand friends? And who will guide you through the nights as all the lights went out?
In the darkness of your room, the only time that you feel free The solidarity you feel is only solitude you share This is where they want you to be Wasting all your thoughts and passion The solidarity you feel is only solitude you share Your strong words gave hope to me so many times But now there's only silence when we meet
An overbearing dogma in disguise Superstition displacing all reality Debasing mother nature and dreaming of Intelligent Design Adulterated doctrine, so abstruse, beyond all reason and apart from any evidence Idolizing supreme forces while trampling down creation Unable to accept their unimportance, their insignificance Prospecting vindication for existing misery Scorn this indoctrination, pressed on by a profane confraternity Shame for the summit of creation
Let sanity prevail! Defending Darwin's throne Where blind belief and science meet we're defending Darwin's throne
How many times can they bend your will until you break and die inside Is there still a heartfelt discomfort in you Deep down inside to live these lies Addicted to goodwill
On bleeding knees you're waiting for the answers With gazing eyes you're hoping for a sign Annihilation of your spirits Dreams die in silence and piece by piece you go with them Forsaken, unseen. Forsaken and unseen
Always accepting the inevitable Won't make you find your peace There is no substitute for your lost dignity No one shall ever poison the worlds in you, The treasures in your heart
At the end of life there's only black and white
On bleeding knees you're waiting for the answers With gazing eyes you're hoping for a sign Annihilation of your spirits Dreams die in silence and piece by piece you go with them Forsaken, unseen. Forsaken and unseen