To be honest, it's only intermittently successful: "Children of the Horn" is a pretty convincing / catchy Motorhead knock off (that also would have been at home on _Kill Em All_) and "Escape From Death" kicks the velocity up a notch with primitive blast beats and a crunchy guitar sound, but mid-tempo rockers such as "Unholy Virgin" and "Virus" fall flat, the reduced tempo and resultant energy ebb serving only to underscore the hit and miss songwriting.

In a way, it recalls the aforementioned late '90s Entombed, where you dig the vox and guitar sound so much you really, really want to give the band the benefit of the doubt, but repeat listens just don't warrant the apologism. _Heavy Breathing_'s stronger moments elevate the overall product to above average status, but even at just over 40 minutes there is still a fair amount of filler present.