Heathen

About

Few Bay Area thrash bands packed as much technical ambition into their records as Heathen. Formed in 1984, the Castro Valley outfit built a reputation alongside Exodus, Testament and Forbidden as one of the defining acts of the mid to late 1980s Bay Area thrash scene, even without mainstream commercial success. Their 1987 debut Breaking the Silence blended thrash aggression with NWOBHM style vocals and melodic shred solos, and a cover of Sweet's "Set Me Free" actually landed them MTV rotation on Headbangers Ball. Their 1991 follow up Victims of Deception pushed things further into progressive territory with odd time signatures, complex riffing and extended song structures. After a hiatus through most of the 1990s, Heathen came back together in 2001 and have kept at it since. Their third album The Evolution of Chaos arrived in 2009 after nearly two decades of silence in the studio, and Empire of the Blind followed in 2020, showing the band still had plenty to say. Vocalist David White and guitarist Lee Altus remained the constants across all four records, giving Heathen a thread of continuity through all the lineup changes over the years.