Hell
Curse and Chapter
Nuclear Blast
2013
Hell, managed to become a bit of an unlikely success story, driven by two decisive factors. They got the full push by Nuclear Blast, even if they were the company’s priority for the summer months and their producer is their guitarist and also happens to be their biggest fan, namely, formerly Sabbat’s Andy Sneap. Hell, originally were an occult NWOBHM, band that really got turned down, by pretty much every company at the time to the point that their original singer, took his own life back in the day. With all due respect, back in the day, while they were “interesting”, they weren’t exactly one of the best NWOBHM bands. I’d dare say they were interesting and cult like, ARC maybe were. Cool songs, but the performances and recordings could have been so much better... so up to a point I can also understand the companies hesitation to sign them... at any rate, vengeance is a cold dish and many years later, after debuting the old demos and singles re-recorded as “Human Remains” with a revitalized line-up the band found the fame and relative fortune, that the old nick might have promised them, back in the day!
“Gehennae Incendiis” is a short atmospheric intro with various chants etc. that quickly leads us to the pretty cool and leading single that is...
“The Age of Nefarius”. A rather fast paced and quite relentless number with quirky floating keyboards, diabolical vocals, that seem to be desperately screamed out, these dark litanies to the underworld master. A satanic masterpiece indeed!
“The Disposer Supreme” begins with some really theatrical, prose and riffs away quite heavily, but is not as quite as catchy. Obviously, the King Diamond and Sabbat and such parallelisms are evident. If you’ve heard the band before well you know what you’re in for. Having more or less, worked on the old songs this is all “new” stuff, so it's decidedly a little more modern, even if it’s very much old school in concept as it is in feeling and attitude. The production is very up-to-date though, but that would be expected, when your guitarist is one of the most in demand producers in the world! Oh the song, could have been a little better, as David Bower, the singer that has been instated to replace the late David Halliday is a little monotonous sounding on this one in particular.
But not as much on the following one the brooding seven minute epic that “Darkhangel” is! Calling out to all the demons of hell to come and take dominion over earth, sounds like some good fun indeed! But here’s were Dave’s actor’s background, comes in very useful as he sounds really commanding and “evil”.
“Harbinger of Death” is not too bad, but somehow a few of its guitar melodies, tend to be too fast and quite “bright” sounding for a song talking about death, destruction, carnage and all that hippy stuff... it has nice dynamics, but I’d like Mr Bower to try using more his lower register, he resorts to this piercing falsetos, head voices and wails, much too often for dramatic effect and it at some point becomes predictable... if he were to do some growly type of stuff w/o suffering damage to his voice, it might be interesting and “demonic” sounding… as well.
HOD, segues almost seamlessly into “End ov Days” that has some “South of Heaven” type of Slayer, thing going on, through its riff motiffs! DB’s singing slightly more restrained, here, works much better, he still does his usual trick, but on a smaller “range” that doesn’t sound annoying, it just sounds as dramatic as it should! Good one!
“Deathsquad” was one of the few, oldies that wasn’t resurrected first time around and is getting the “treatment” here... being quite superb.
“Something Wicked This Way Comes” is dark and weird and cruel and twisted and comes in waves, like madness. Pretty theatrical. Quite likeable.
“Faith Will Fall” almost maintains the same pace and even a similar riff to its predecessor, it’s not too bad, but it sounds somewhat derivative, maybe not intentionally...
“Land of the Living Dead” is very much playful and based on keyboards that seem to antagonize guitars and a lone bass-line that lonesomely goes there in the middle and just plays on! It’s at the very least interesting, when I was thinking that the album was getting a little monotonous. Well it manages to vary the pace at the very least.
“Deliver Us From Evil” begins with some really tongue twisting sort of flamboyant proclamation about deliverance from evil... it’s quite “idiosyncratic”... I mean it’s a tiny part COF, mostly Sabbat, kind of Hell... and a bit of fun really!
Finally “A Vespertine Legacy” that closes the album is another “drama” where the band seemingly manages to get the balance, almost right, even if DB, tends to oversing it, a little at times... but it’s nice guitar melodies and overall atmosphere tend to make you overlook that minor qualm.
Hell is back, on earth... and it’s not too bad actually. I had them written off to be blatantly hones as a one off. They might be around to torture us, for a bit longer apparently! For at least 6,66 albums at the very least! J I suppose if Dave Bower could contain himself a bit and experiment with his vocals a bit to provide a bit more variety and in general if they sort of try to maintain songwriting at least to this level, things should be devilishly good!
“Gehennae Incendiis” is a short atmospheric intro with various chants etc. that quickly leads us to the pretty cool and leading single that is...
“The Age of Nefarius”. A rather fast paced and quite relentless number with quirky floating keyboards, diabolical vocals, that seem to be desperately screamed out, these dark litanies to the underworld master. A satanic masterpiece indeed!
“The Disposer Supreme” begins with some really theatrical, prose and riffs away quite heavily, but is not as quite as catchy. Obviously, the King Diamond and Sabbat and such parallelisms are evident. If you’ve heard the band before well you know what you’re in for. Having more or less, worked on the old songs this is all “new” stuff, so it's decidedly a little more modern, even if it’s very much old school in concept as it is in feeling and attitude. The production is very up-to-date though, but that would be expected, when your guitarist is one of the most in demand producers in the world! Oh the song, could have been a little better, as David Bower, the singer that has been instated to replace the late David Halliday is a little monotonous sounding on this one in particular.
But not as much on the following one the brooding seven minute epic that “Darkhangel” is! Calling out to all the demons of hell to come and take dominion over earth, sounds like some good fun indeed! But here’s were Dave’s actor’s background, comes in very useful as he sounds really commanding and “evil”.
“Harbinger of Death” is not too bad, but somehow a few of its guitar melodies, tend to be too fast and quite “bright” sounding for a song talking about death, destruction, carnage and all that hippy stuff... it has nice dynamics, but I’d like Mr Bower to try using more his lower register, he resorts to this piercing falsetos, head voices and wails, much too often for dramatic effect and it at some point becomes predictable... if he were to do some growly type of stuff w/o suffering damage to his voice, it might be interesting and “demonic” sounding… as well.
HOD, segues almost seamlessly into “End ov Days” that has some “South of Heaven” type of Slayer, thing going on, through its riff motiffs! DB’s singing slightly more restrained, here, works much better, he still does his usual trick, but on a smaller “range” that doesn’t sound annoying, it just sounds as dramatic as it should! Good one!
“Deathsquad” was one of the few, oldies that wasn’t resurrected first time around and is getting the “treatment” here... being quite superb.
“Something Wicked This Way Comes” is dark and weird and cruel and twisted and comes in waves, like madness. Pretty theatrical. Quite likeable.
“Faith Will Fall” almost maintains the same pace and even a similar riff to its predecessor, it’s not too bad, but it sounds somewhat derivative, maybe not intentionally...
“Land of the Living Dead” is very much playful and based on keyboards that seem to antagonize guitars and a lone bass-line that lonesomely goes there in the middle and just plays on! It’s at the very least interesting, when I was thinking that the album was getting a little monotonous. Well it manages to vary the pace at the very least.
“Deliver Us From Evil” begins with some really tongue twisting sort of flamboyant proclamation about deliverance from evil... it’s quite “idiosyncratic”... I mean it’s a tiny part COF, mostly Sabbat, kind of Hell... and a bit of fun really!
Finally “A Vespertine Legacy” that closes the album is another “drama” where the band seemingly manages to get the balance, almost right, even if DB, tends to oversing it, a little at times... but it’s nice guitar melodies and overall atmosphere tend to make you overlook that minor qualm.
Hell is back, on earth... and it’s not too bad actually. I had them written off to be blatantly hones as a one off. They might be around to torture us, for a bit longer apparently! For at least 6,66 albums at the very least! J I suppose if Dave Bower could contain himself a bit and experiment with his vocals a bit to provide a bit more variety and in general if they sort of try to maintain songwriting at least to this level, things should be devilishly good!