- High Roller Records, reissue 2023, swamp green w/ white & doublemint green splatter vinyl, ltd 250, large poster (740x420mm), insert, remastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel/ Temple of Disharmony.
“The Heritage” was the fourth full-length album by German Thrash/Death pioneers Protector. Originally released in 1993, it amplified Protector’s Death Metal inclination, as well as adding an experimental/progressive touch and even further developed musicianship shown off in a decent, not all-too-technical way. A reviewer on Metal Archives even called it “the most well written death metal album that I have personally ever listened to.“ If that isn’t something! And that guy may be right. Protector had matured and were totally in control of what they were doing, not only focusing on being as fast, heavy and savage as possible, but always paying attention to the purposeful use of effects, and, most important, to the composition as a whole. Protector played skillfully with the innovations the Nineties threw at them: Just listen to “Convicts on the Streets” which even treads the forbidden paths of groove metal…
German “Rockhard” celebrated this ruthless piece of Thrash/Death as the album which should finally reinforce Protector’s status as an integral part of the German metal elite – but things never turn out the way you expect, and “The Heritage” would be the last proper album to come out before Protector vanished from the scene for a good ten years (until they had their comeback with “Reanimated Homunculus, out on High Roller).
For the re-release, “The Heritage” has been remastered by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony, and it will come with a bunch of previously unreleased pictures from the past.
TRACKLIST CD/ LP:
01-Mental Malaria
02-Scars Bleed Life Long
03-The Heritage
04-Lost Properties
05-Convicts on the Street
06-Protective Unconsciousness
07-Paralizer
08-Chronology
09-Palpitation
10-Outro