By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

HERETIC – BREAKING POINT (1988)

It’s kind of funny how things work out sometimes. You see, I didn’t actually intend to write about an album featuring the late vocalist Mike Howe just three days after what would’ve been his birthday.

But I guess the universe decided it had other plans. But it sure took a roundabout way of getting me to write about the Heretic album Breaking Point. I’ve had a copy of the album on vinyl for I can’t remember how long. And while I had listened to it when I first got it, I can’t remember playing it much since that point. The fact that I don’t have a great record player was certainly a factor, but I just simply never got around to it much in the first place.

But then I saw Metal Church in concert a couple months ago. And the night before that show, the band did a signing at the local record shop, Purchase Street Records [in New Bedford, MA]. Because Metal Church guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof had co-produced this Heretic album, I decided to bring it with me to have him sign.

And yet, that still isn’t why you are about to read this article. Instead, it is because a couple weeks ago, the record shop posted a photo online of some cassettes they’d just gotten into the store. And there in the lower right hand corner, just barely able to be read, was a cassette edition of Breaking Point. As soon as I was able to get to the store, I grabbed up the cassette because I knew I wanted to write about it. And thus, here we are.

Two years prior to the 1988 release of this album, Heretic had released an EP called Torture Knows No Boundary. But Mike Howe wasn’t in the lineup yet, though he did join the band sometime soon after the EP was put out. And while he does lend his vocals to Breaking Point, you can be forgiven for seeing this as kind of his audition for Metal Church because he ended up leaving Heretic for Metal Church before 1988 was out.

Now, I had said I hadn’t listened to the album in a while. And while my original listen to it when I got the vinyl left me thinking the album was good, I don’t remember being overly blown away by it either.
Funny how time changes an opinion though.

The first side of the album opens up with the band’s namesake song “Heretic”. The opening serves as a bit of a mood setter before the song kicks into a much higher (and relentlessly faster) gear. The tempo becomes explosive, the sound of the song immediately gripping you and Mike Howe’s vocals shine through quite nicely.

The lineup for the band on this album also included the founding guitarist Brian Korban (who wrote eight of the album’s ten tracks), bassist Dennis O’Hara (who wrote “The Enemy Within” and “Shifting Time”), plus Bob Marquez on guitar and Ricky Merick on drums.
Korban certainly sounds great on a lot of the guitar work he’s involved with on the album. The opening track of Side Two is the instrumental “Pale Fire” and it is one hell of a track. It has an acoustic vibe to it and it is deceptively sedate. You can feel the intensity of the playing as you listen along. I did think it an odd placement in the track listing for an instrumental to open a side of an album, but “Pale Fire” really works.
But getting back to the first side of the album, after “Heretic” the next three tracks follow a roughly similar path in regards to tempo. They are all fast-paced rockers designed to not really let you catch your breath. What makes each track individually is how the band varies them up just enough so they don’t all run together.

On “…And Kingdoms Fall”, the song’s tempo is offset by a killer set of lyrics that when you read them now take on a slightly more somber tone as it relates to just how Mike Howe passed away. If you can, look up the lyrics. I know when I did, my sadness over his passing washed over me once again.

I think my biggest issue upon re-listening to Breaking Point was how some of the songs had some really mediocre lyrics in the chorus. Case in point: While I really liked the main lyrical passages of “The Circle”, the chorus mind-numbingly pedestrian.

But I got over that when the next song on Side One, “The Enemy Within” started playing. As I said, it is a fast-moving number that just really seemed to hit the mark perfectly with me.

As for the closing track on Side One, “Time Runs Short” was featured more of a deliberate take in the delivery…for the most part at least. In the main portions of the vocals, the song is almost like a set piece type of song. The anchor track to tie the side together with a sense of drama thrown in the mix. The delivery does get a bit harder-edged during the chorus but then switches back to the more methodical style. It is just a darn good song in my book.

Of course, then we move on to Side Two. After that “Pale Fire” instrumental opening things up in a more measured tone, Heretic slips into full throttle mode with the song “Shifting Fire”. There’s a grittier feel to the delivery and the overall style of this song made for another track I felt came off like a winner for me.

Of course as fast as that track was, “Let ‘Em Bleed” took things up a few more notches. The pacing for the song is viciously intense. The entire band is just shredding on this killer track.

You’ve heard of that movie I Spit on Your Grave, right? Well, despite a kind of boring chorus, the song “Evil For Evil” serves up lyrical content of a woman getting her revenge on whomever done her wrong. Well, at least that’s what I got out of listening to and reading the lyrics as the fast-paced track rolled along.

While Side Two opened relatively slowly, those next three tracks all had quite a sense of pulse-pounding metal rhythms. But much like the first side of the album, the closing track (“The Search”) of Side Two was more of a methodically delivered and filled with dramatic tension set piece. The lyrics are plentiful (it is one of the album’s longest songs in terms of just how many lyrics there are) and you get the sense that you are being taken on a musical journey.

I can’t lie to you. The first time I heard Breaking Point, it was fine. But even with the added interest of Mike Howe on vocals, I just didn’t quite get into the album as much as I would’ve perhaps liked to have done. But all these years later, I’ve found a new outlook on the album and while Heretic might not have been successful with the album, Breaking Point does indeed have some pretty great sounding material you’d be remiss to not go give another listen to for yourself.

NOTES OF INTEREST: After Heretic broke up, Brian Korban and Dennis O’Hara would go on to form the band Reverend with, oddly enough, ex-Metal Church frontman David Wayne. However, in 2011 Korban and O’Hara would reunite Heretic bringing back former frontman Julian Mendez (the singer Mike Howe replaced back in 1986. Stranger still, the Breaking Point album contains a dedication to Mendez. O’Hara only stayed with the reformed band for 2011, but the band is still active today. They released two albums 2011’s A Time of Crisis and 2017’s A Game You Cannot Win.

In 2013, Metal Blade Records released a 3-CD box set called From The Vault…Broken and Tortured that included the Breaking Point album, the Torture Knows No Boundary EP as well as bonus tracks and a live DVD of the band.

The current lineup of the band includes guitarist Stuart Fuji. He’s been with the reformed lineup since 2014. However, he appeared on the Breaking Point album as a session keyboard player. However, he was credited as Stu Fujinami.