I sure wasn’t expecting to review two albums featuring cover art by Sadistik Exekution’s Rok in the same week, but here we are! 9 times out of 10, if Rok’s doing your cover art, chances are the album is going to slap, and even if it doesn’t, it’ll certainly adhere to the old school ethos (see Violentor’s Burn in Metal). In the case of Violent Iconoclasm, the “debut” album from Hellslaught (more on that in a bit), it’s unapologetically old school and slaps hard. One listen and your face is bound to bear the bloody imprint of Quorthon’s hand from Oz’s Fire in the Brain cover.
Now the reason I use the word “debut” lightly here is because technically speaking, Violent Iconoclasm is this band’s debut under the moniker Hellslaught. From 2013 until last year, maniacs far and wide knew this band as Kömmand, who released three full length slabs of gonzo black-thrash insanity as such. I have no idea why after a decade establishing themselves with multiple albums and festival appearances, they’d rebrand this late in the game, save for legal reasons (see Idle Hands reemerging as Unto Others), but this doesn’t seem to be the case here. No, it’s as if when the rest of the world wasn’t looking, Kömmand all of a sudden became Hellslaught.
While the name may have changed, the music remains the same. Violent Iconoclasm is an aptly titled album, carrying on where 2021’s Stubborn Arsenal left off with a collection of blackened thrashers that are dark, intense, and packed to the brim with demonic vigor. If we’re comparing it to a band or album of yesteryear, Bathory’s The Return…… immediately comes to mind. The songs are murkier and edgier than your usual speed/thrash/punk fare that dominates the first wave black metal worship niche, but still maintains enough thrashiness throughout, whether it be in the riffing or drumming, to avoid lying too close to the genre’s second wave.
For an album of this nature, the runtimes tend to lie on the longer side (roughly 5 minutes), yet without ever feeling overblown or unwelcome. The songs themselves are far too bestial to be branded as “progressive” or “technical”, although the longest cut, “Liminal Bridges”, certainly boasts some ambitious arrangement, akin to Poison circa Into the Abyss. It’s quite unique, and boasts some memorable hooks and lyricism. Ironically, the thrashing black ‘n’ roll of “Mount Vvornth” is another standout, perhaps for its juxtaposition alone. For as firm a grip as Hellslaught has on colossal blackened thrash epics, they can also bust out some short and rotten ragers with equal confidence.
Who knew that the spirit of Quorthon would possess a quartet of beer-chugging, hard-thrashing, patch-vested maniacs from Seattle? Reinvigorated with a crushing production job, razor-sharp songwriting, and a new name to boot, Hellslaught have come to kömmand headbangers young and old to pick up Violent Iconoclasm and give it a whirl. Would you really defy this bunch? I’m not sure I would. Again, if Under the Sign of the Black Mark is TOO proto-Scandinavian black metal for you and you’ve waited 40 years for the follow up to The Return…… that never was, look no furhter.
7 out of 10
Label: Witches Brew
Genre: Black/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Bathory, Kreator, Poison