Heeee’s back…
After nearly two decades of deathlike scene silence Nick Heigelmann — one of the driving forces behind perhaps the most under-appreciated melodic death metal band of the 1990s The Year of Our Lord — returns from one of the darkest, most interesting corners of the heavy metal abyss* with Bad Spirits, a preconception-obliterating collection of thirteen innovative, adventurous, diverse, enlivening tracks under the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired moniker Sun in Shadows.
Few are the artists who could channel and transfigure elements of Only Living Witness, late Emperor, early In Flames, Cathedral, and even Jake E. Lee era Ozzy solo stuff at all, period, but Heigelmann accomplishes all this and more — often in the space of a single song.
I vaguely recall some rando on Twitter recently declaring that any metal writer who used the phrase “tour de force” should be put in the dungeon or subjected to some other totally proportional punishment, but Heigelmann moves so deftly between subgenres and so deeply infuses his expansive take on metal with true soul…I honestly don’t know what the fuck else you’d call this. So lock me up, I guess. Bad Spirits is the real deal and a half.
And — lucky you — we’ve got the exclusive premiere of the video for the track “Sun in Shadows” premiering below. The Kurt Ballou-produced record is out October 31. Preorder here.
*Actually, Maine.