From Industrialized Metal

Vhan is a metal band from Belgium. Before the release of this debut album we're discussing here right now, the band released a couple of demos, and most of all played various live shows and festivals, sharing the stage with bands such as Do Or Die, Napalm Death, Born From Pain and Sworn Enemy. Their music can be described as 'raging metal with hardcore touches'.

After the intro, the release kicks off with 'Secret'. It's a wicked track, with diverse drumming and powerful riffing, bringing a mix of hardcore and (industrial?) death metal. The song as well includes some very interesting guitar picks. 'First Blood' moves from heavy sounding midtempo parts to catchy uptempo parts, with wicked guitarwork and diverse vocal lines. 'His Life On TV' is another heavy sounding track, with recogniseable programming and riffing perfectly melted together with the vocal lines. 'The Faithful' opens with AC/DC likely guitarwork, which gets repeated in the chorus. Furthermore, the track is a decent and powerful midtempo hardcore metal track, with small influences from out the metalcore corner. 'My Mission' is a two-minute track, with a heavy opener and a pretty easy listening attitude. It goes from death metal to modern metalcore and even a little bit of nu-metal. 'The Hunt' comes with a death metal opening, experimental drumloops and riffing and a wicked amount of energy, turning it into my personal favorite track of the release. 'Crash (A Beast In A Soul)' comes with an almost smoothy opening, a wellknown riff on the intermezzo and very powerful drumming. The release ends with the title track 'Hero Vs Hero' - which turns out to be a decent midtempo track mixing metalcore with some old school influences and a big amount of enthausiasm.

Despite the name of our zine, Vhan isn't really an industrial metal band. Then why still this review? Because I feel that many industrial metal fans might appreciate this album too. If you're more into the heavier stuff - think Dagoba / Fear Factory / Zuul FX - you will probably have a blast listening to this album. Vocalwise this band reminds me to my personal favorite vsxe band Seven Generations, while musicwise we can find many touches of metalcore and hardcore. The thing that makes this band unique is definitely the guitarwork, with experimental picks and tiny solos this band created an own sound that, when compared, might come the closest to Nearea and maybe Heaven Shall Burn - but still I wouldn't count on it that much. Basically an album you need to hear all by yourself first.

Vote: 85 / 100

From Metalstorm

In a certain way, Belgium is like a booger. Small, insignificant and hard to locate - but it's there... somewhere. Before you start throwing in some horrible Belgian jokes, clichés and Monthy Python references, let me assure you that Belgium, as insignificant as it may be, sure knows how to sprout smashing metal bands... like Vhan for example. Yes, we Belgians know how to rock your world - that is, more than some make-up-soaked wannabee-Barbie slut with plastic boobs ever will... Bret.

All kidding aside, Vhan is a Belgian metalcore band bringing the real deal. Vhan has a sound like dynamite and their debut album Hero Vs Hero turns out to be a little bomb. Indeed, Vhan are found pretty convincing and deadly contagious, as the band is relying on massive rhythms, raging grooves and heavy melodies with hardcore rooted screams more than anything else. By all means, this is a band with a bit of an attitude. By that I mean they're not entirely badass, as their sound is a bit too accessible and compelling for that. Still the music has enough raw elements and sharp edges to bring the angry headbanger inside you to a mild delirium. Vhan's catchy approach (not speaking about the vocals!) even reminded me a wee little bit to the Killswitch Engage-kind of melodic metalcore. Nonetheless, this band really has more power and strength up its sleeve, making them able to please a large number of the non-metalcore-minded metalheads too.

To me personally, metalcore isn't such an interesting genre. Metalcore is what it is, and what you see is what you get - most of the time. But that doesn't mean Hero Vs Hero didn't spice my interest. Although Vhan are far from being innovative and groundbreaking, they still manage to sound surprisingly fresh at times - something I really appreciate from metalcore bands.
Earlier I described the album as a little bomb... but I cannot help but feeling there's something missing to call it a total blast of an album. Though, seeing this is only the band's very first album, you have to give them credit for what they accomplished so far on Hero Vs Hero.

At the end of the ride, Vhan turns out to be one mean booger you'd be more than happy to catch. And maybe, just maybe, this is that one mean booger you even want to put into your mouth just to check if the taste is as nice as it looks like. No matter how you slice it, this is one fine pick of an album.

From Metalzone