It's always a breath of fresh air to hear a good ol' Heavy Metal band that keep to the tradition but offer something new to the table, which is exactly what HEVILAN do. Having been around since 2005, they're certainly not new to the scene. Emerging from São Paulo, "The End of Time" is their debut album, it features a lot of guest appearances throughout the album, Vitor Rodrigues (TORTURE SQUAD, VOODOO PRIEST), Warrel Dane (NEVERMORE, SANCTUARY) and Eduardo Ardanuy (DR. SIN) to name drop a few, along with Aquiles Priester (PRIMAL FEAR) who took up permanent residence on the drums for the entirety of this album. So, this album is certainly star-studded, a perfect way to blast a debut into the scene.

In their short bio, available on their Facebook page, they describe their influences as "All good heavy metal and classical music". Their influences are extremely evident in this album. Almost every song has a classical-themed chunk within them. Their opening track "Regenesis" blasts us with a fast, tasty guitar riff. The vocals shortly kick in and make the song much more catchy, they're melodic and easy on the ears. The chorus is the focal point of the song, featuring a classical rendition of the word "Regenesis", which, I guarantee, you will be unknowingly singing or humming before the day is out. The following song "Shades of War" features the vocals of the aforementioned Vitor Rodrigues, whose voice is spine-tingling. Four songs later we're welcomed with "Sanctum Imperium" which commences with an eerie operatic vocal feature which really compliments the song title. You can feel the energy flowing from this song, in my opinion it is the best on the album. About halfway through there is a brief transition to acoustic which came completely out of the blue.

HEVILAN are in a league of their own. They added elements that no one expects, constantly keeping us interested. There is definitely talent oozing from each and every track, there is not one time where I thought "this could have been better". Everything fits together the way they should and they exceeded my expectations. This is an album every self-respecting Heavy Metal fan should have in their music collection.