Heathen "Empire Of The Blind"

Empire of the Blind is the fourth studio album by American thrash metal band Heathen, released on September 18, 2020. It is the band's first album in 11 years, following The Evolution of Chaos (2009), the first to feature Jason Mirza and Jim DeMaria on bass and drums respectively, and their first release on Nuclear Blast.

Although recording had not officially commenced until 2019, Heathen began working on the follow-up to The Evolution of Chaos in 2012 after they signed to Nuclear Blast. For the remaining seven years, the band was sidetracked by lineup changes, individual projects, and guitarist Kragen Lum filling in for Gary Holt in Exodus whenever Holt was touring with Slayer. In a September 2020 interview with KMUW radio, Lum recalled: "By about 2014 I had half the record completely demoed with vocals and everything. I continued to write over the next few years but I more or less too busy to demo it and properly finish the songs. I was touring with Exodus pretty heavily from about 2015 until 2019. Whenever we had a long enough break, I would work on stuff but it just really wasn't until last year where I had enough time to finish writing and I had more than enough for an album. There's a song that we actually didn't even record."

Track listing

All tracks are written by Kragen Lum.

1. "This Rotting Sphere" (instrumental) 1:44
2. "The Blight" 4:38
3. "Empire of the Blind" 5:51
4. "Dead and Gone" 3:56
5. "Sun in My Hand" 4:54
6. "Blood to Be Let" 3:36
7. "In Black" 4:38
8. "Shrine of Apathy" 4:58
9. "Devour" 3:34
10. "A Fine Red Mist" (instrumental) 5:15
11. "The Gods Divide" 3:35
12. "Monument to Ruin" (instrumental) 0:37

Total length: 47:16

Recording information:

Produced, engineered, mixed and mastered at Planet-Z Studios, Hadley, MA.

Drums recorded at Dexter's Lab, Milford, CT.

Vocals, bass and additional guitars recorded at Planet-Z.

Gary Holt and Rick Hunolt solos recorded at Trident Studio, Pacheco, CA.

Doug Piercy solo recorded at Pyramid Studio, San Francisco, CA.