Heathen

Formed in San Francisco in 1984 around guitarist Lee Altus, Heathen is part of the Bay Area thrash metal scene with a more melodic and technical approach than many of its contemporaries. The band stood out from its beginnings for the combination of fast riffs, intricate structures, and David White's clean vocals, present through most of its career. After a first demo in 1986, Heathen released Breaking the Silence in 1987, followed by Victims of Deception in 1991, two albums that show the evolution of incisive thrash toward a more complex writing, sometimes close to speed metal and progressive metal. Despite several lineup changes and a split in 1992, Heathen reformed in 2001 and quickly returned to festival stages and tours in Europe as well as the United States. The band came back with Recovered in 2004, a compilation of re-recordings and covers, then The Evolution of Chaos in 2010, before Empire of the Blind in 2020. Over the years, Heathen also crossed paths with musicians linked to Exodus, Blind Illusion, Metal Church or Vio-lence, which places the band in the broad history of Californian metal. Between thrash velocity, a sense of heavy melody and more detailed compositions, Heathen maintains an identity marked by the precision of the guitars and a lasting taste for dynamic contrasts.