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.

Background
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."

Reception
Empire of the Blind was released to positive reviews from critics. Paul Hutchings of The Razor's Edge described the album as "top drawer with plenty of detail and thought applied", and stated, "The production of the album is slick and sharp, with engineering, production, mixing and mastering by Christopher 'Zeuss' Harris with additional work by Lum. Of course, without the music this is all irrelevant. Thankfully, Empire of the Blind meets all the expectations and more. Superbly performed, this is an album that should feature highly in the top albums of the year."

Heathen

 * David White – lead vocals
 * Lee Altus – guitars
 * Kragen Lum – guitars, backing vocals
 * Jason Mirza – bass
 * Jim DeMaria – drums

Additional musicians

 * Gary Holt – guitar solo (track 10)
 * Rick Hunolt – guitar solo (track 10)
 * Doug Piercy – guitar solo (track 10)
 * Zeuss – backing vocals

Production and design

 * Zeuss – production, recording (drums, bass, vocals, additional guitars), engineering, mixing, mastering
 * Kragen Lum – recording (guitars), art direction, layout
 * Juan Urteaga – recording (Holt and Hunolt's solos)
 * Doug Piercy – recording (Piercy's solo)
 * Travis Smith – artwork
 * Alvin Petty – logo
 * Chrissie Dieu – photography