Their debut effort, 1986's Graceful Inheritance (featuring singer Paul Davidson, bassist Derek Peace, and drummer Ray Schwartz) remains the highest rated album in the history of Germany's ROCK HARD magazine, rated at 49 of 50 by the editorial staff when released in January of 1986. In 2005, "Graceful Inheritance" was placed at #188 in ROCK HARD's "Best of Rock and Metal - Top 500 albums of all time" hardcover book which catalogs 40 years of rock and metal music history. Heir Apparent expanded into progressive metal with 1989's One Small Voice (introducing new vocalist Steve Benito and keyboardist Mike Jackson). Critically acclaimed by collectors, the catalog of Heir Apparent recordings has continued to be reissued by various independent record labels over the past 25 years.

In 2000, the original musicians reunited at the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany with guest vocalist Mike Flatters. Terry Gorle reformed Heir Apparent with a new lineup from 2002-2004, with that band returning to Europe to headline the "Keep It True" VII Festival in Germany along with two concerts in Greece in 2006. Most recently, the original musicians with guest vocalist Jeff Carrell returned to Greece and Germany in 2012.

In March of 2015, vocalist Will Shaw joined the Heir Apparent lineup of Gorle, Peace, Schwartz, and Sakiya. The new Heir Apparent lineup performed their first of four scheduled "30th Anniversary" festival appearances in October 2015 at the Play It Loud Festival in Brescia, Italy. This show was followed in February 2016 by two festival appearances in Greece, Up The Hammers in Athens, and the Excalibur Festival in Thessaloniki. The band returned to Germany in April 2016 to co-headline KEEP IT TRUE XIX. In June 2016 Heir Apparent signed a third album contract with No Remorse Records, with a release date of October 15, 2018. Early reviews of the new album have been fantastic.

Heir Apparent will be returning to Germany in 2019 to perform at the Rock Hard Festival in June, and the Headbangers Open Air Festival in July.