Black Heart Rebellion: Har Nevo

From the same Antwerp scene that spawned dEUS, Black Heart Rebellion perpetuate the stereotype of the overwrought Continental rocker venting existential despair via screaming violins, torture porn guitars and tunes that don’t so much disdain conventional song structures as apply a wrecking ball to them. Setting the group apart are hardcore and death metal overtones. Opener ‘Avraham’ may start with wind chimes but when frontman Pieter Uyttenhove shows up, everything goes headbanger rock, the singer intoning his pretentious lyrics in the style of a Klingon with an icky throat. They do mix the formula up : ‘Animalesque’ wears its Nick Cave influence like epaulets and ‘Gold & Myth’ displays a glancing familiarity with folk music. In the main, however, the default setting is howling, chest-thumping angs