Album Review: Helios Forsaken

Helios Forsaken is a 5-and-a-quarter-song album from Auckland’s Shepherds of Cassini, and it’s going to hit you hard. Mirrors Have No Memory is a 45 second song, hence the quarter.

This second album is in a genre all of its own, mixing progressive rock with post metal. Hard core deep bass riffs by Vitesh Bava rattle through the songs accompanied by Felix Lun’s violin. While initially this didn’t seem to fit, as the tracks went on it either worked better or I just got used to it. 

The heavy drums by Omar Al-Hashimi will definitely explode your speakers given the chance, and I recommend you turn it up loud. The guitar sound, riffs and style is quite phenomenal too, setting this band apart from other metal bands.

One small criticism is that there could be more lyrics, having said that however, the great vocals by Brendan Zwaan fitted well and worked within the albums structure.

The longest song The Almagest, at 14 minutes and 59 seconds, is certainly epic in length and must really rock when played live.

The first couple of songs had some strange transitions which worked, but again after the initial surprise I got used to them and it all worked well together.

Check out the album here, and enjoy.