Have I really reached my final album review of 2022? It just so turns out that I have. Man, this year FLEW. It feels just like yesterday I was predicting Saxon’s Carpe Diem to be my “album of the year, or at the very least crack the top 5”. Spoiler alert: The latter half of this prediction turned out to be true. As for the 39 other top albums of the year, you’re just gonna have to wait until tomorrow for that much anticipated list. Until then, I invite you to feast your eyes and ears upon the subject of today’s review, Hellish.
Hailing from the faraway land of Chile, a country appropriately known for its “hellish” climate, Hellish specializes in blackened thrash served Teutonic style. In other words, if you dig early Sodom, Kreator, and Destruction (and who doesn’t?), or even more obscure acts like Necronomicon and Holy Moses, you’ll be all over Hellish’s latest album, The Dance of the Four Elemental Serpents. While at no point does the album sound blatantly like any one of these bands, it exudes the same spirit and energy, balancing thrashing mad aggression and foreboding darkness.
The Dance has no shortage of straightaway thrashers that channel the genre at its mid 80s peak. Cuts like “The Ancient Entity of the Darkest Light”, “Black Stones”, and “Goddess Death” tow the line between speed and thrash, coming off like tracks off an unearthed demo from 1985. The production and approach is dirty, but not overtly so. While the “blackened” aspect of these specific songs vary, the first wave black metal influences are overtly present in the harsh vocals and dark, grim riffage. And when Hellish does go full blown black metal mode, it’s made evident.
The slow, menacing crawl of “Violent, Bloody & Cold” evoke shadows of early Bathory and Deathcrush era Mayhem, standing out as a refreshing spin on the classic Scandinavian black metal sound. “Nocturnal Trudge” and “Secrets of the Sands” incorporate eerie melodies and an overall arcane atmosphere akin to Absu, or as I like to call it, “thrashened black metal”. And then there’s cuts such as “Dreamlike Fears” and the closing instrumental title track, on which Hellish give their black-thrash and old school tech twist. All I’ll say is that if they wanted to go the Megadeth/Coroner/Voivod route, they certainly have the chops to do so. I’m also convinced they’d be able to successfully adapt to tech thrash without sacrificing riffs or heaviness, but let’s take one thing at a time here.
For what it’s worth, The Dance of the Four Elemental Serpents is a wild black-thrash ride to close out the year; one that touches on both musical finesse and downright devastation. Is it reinventing any wheel? Hell no, but what black/thrash/speed metal band today is? Furthermore, I’m willing to argue this is a wheel that sound remain un-reinvented, and I think anyone with half a brain would agree with me. The last thing we need is some asshole attempting post-blackened thrash *hurl*.
7 out of 10
Label: Dying Victims Productions
Genre: Black/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Sodom, Bathory, Absu