### Root: Heritage of Satan

#### 11/11/11 || gk

I’ve been a fan of Root for a long while now. “The Book” and “Daemon Viam Invenient” still get played regularly. So when I read that Root were going to be releasing a new album this year I was really excited and then when I got my hands on it to review for the stubs section I couldn’t wait to listen to “Heritage of Satan” but then as is so often the case there’s a big gap between expectation and reality. Root has gone from charmingly eccentric to pretty fucking strange. The album alternates between lame and sometimes laughable attempts at sounding modern including nu-metal, southern rock ala Black Label Society and rock n roll and the band’s patented slightly discordant and harsh proto black metal sound.

Big Boss’s age seems to have finally caught up with him and his baritone just isn’t as powerful as it used to be and this means he’s doing a lot more of his harsher vocal style but on songs like “Revenge of Hell” and “Legacy of Ancestors” he just sounds comedic. Guitarist Ashok no longer plays those wildly over the top guitar solos. In fact there isn’t a single memorable song here and some of these songs just made me laugh out loud because of how ridiculous they were. At some level I can’t believe this is the same Root who used to write grand and majestic sounding metal. “Heritage of Satan” has left me utterly disappointed.

3/10. It’s time for Big Boss to retire.