What makes a legendary band truly legendary? We could embark upon a Socratic discussion on the subject right now, but that would leave us with no time for this here review, so I’ll give you one answer to the above question. A band’s musical impact is reflected in the scope of bands they went onto influence. For example, Bathory are a clear as day influence on our other featured band of the day, Fer de Lance. They’re also an audible influence on this here band, and latest Hells Headbangers signee, Hexella. The kicker? Musically speaking, Fer de Lance and Hexella share absolutely NOTHING in common. Dammit Quorthon, you truly were a genius!
So who the hell is Hexella (Say that five times fast!)? Are they yet another yellow goat era Bathory clone, ripping through my stereo with a senseless blizzard of tremolo riffs and frenzied d-beats? Well, the latter, yes. The former? Not so much, but allow me to continue. Hexella are a female-fronted black metalpunk act hailing from the land of ZZ Top and Paaaaaaaaantera (You know you read that in J-Dawg’s voice), AKA Texas. They’ve dropped a pair of demos and a split alongside fellow blackened metalpunx, Wülfskol, before dropping this here debut full length, The Ancient Gaping Mouth.
Leading up to this album’s release, I’d seen various folks in various circles of the metal webisphere, going so far as to brand Hexella a black ‘n’ roll act. While I can’t speak for past releases (Perhaps they channeled the spirit of Lemmy for the demos?), the only true black ‘n’ roll moment on this here affair is “No Return”, which go figure, is my favorite cut. Simple, sleazy, and straightforward, it’s nothing you haven’t heard before, but it sure hits the spot. This five minute rocker delivers a demonic sucker punch and steals your lunch money, sliding in and ripping out with the intensity of a prime Midnight banger. In other words, it rocks HARD. So how about the rest?
While I struggle to find another truly noteworthy song on this release, The Ancient Gaping Mouth is far from bad. What it lacks in memorability, it makes up for in surefire consistency. The black metal aspect of their sound draws from early Bathory, Carpathian Forest, and Impaled Nazarene: Meat and potatoes metallic blasphemy with extra muscular riffage, no tissue-paper thin wimpery to be found (i.e. “Ophitic Revelation”, “Where the Scythe Falls”, “Voices of Vorsa”). On the punk side of the equation are the equally obvious nods to such anarchistic outfits as Discharge, The Exploited, and another crucially important female-fronted metalpunk act, Sacrilege (i.e. “Leviathan Calls”, “Into 218”, “Black Earth”).
When you put the two together, you’ve got a sort of hellish d-beat driven melee of cult metal noise, not dissimilar from a Darkthrone album circa the late ’10s. Assuming he sees this, I’m sure the Dawg’s got smoke blowing out of his ears just reading that last sentence (if you know, you know). That said, I gotta hand it to him, and the otha Horval brothas too for that matter, for remaining go-to tastemakers amidst a polluted and diluted underground. Hexella might not have the tunes to blow my mind just yet, but they sure send the CANOOOOEEEESSSS that make up other label rosters home on a STREEEETTTCCCHHEERR. Surely, they’ll impress in time, so long as they follow the yellow-horned goat.
6 out of 10
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Genre: Black Metal/Punk
For fans of: Bathory, Darkthrone, Carpathian Forest