HellsAfter 10 years, a couple of demos and a split cd, Finland’s Hellspirit have released their debut album “Dawn under Curse”. Along the way they have forged a reputation for their live shows. The structure and movement of this album suggest that it would lend itself to a live performance.

The problem is that “Dawn under Curse” does not give off the energy of a live show. In fact apart from one masterly section in the latter part of “Eternal Night (Millennia of Might)”, Hellspirit was more a case of no spirit. Even up to the point where this track burst alive and we were finally treated to some fluid and melodic metal energy mixed with black metal and doom, I’d given up the first five and a half minutes as a heavy and dead-weighted song which didn’t go anywhere. In spite of its sinister suggestions, there was no threat or shock. This is a criticism I would level at the album as a whole. Hellspirit seem to be masters of the art of tracks which don’t get going. It perhaps might be expected of an intro, which in this case develops an atmosphere of foreboding but is ultimately three and a bit minutes of long-winded pomp. I read afterwards that Hellspirit have moved from thrash-orientated black metal towards war-like black metal with thrash and heavy metal roots. I’d say there were elements of all of this here. “Weak Flesh – Filthy Blood” is suitably dark and stormy.

Black metal vocals match the blazing guitars which act as a rising slab of imperious thunder. I was expecting a step-up of pace or something explosive, but it stayed below the line for me. There’s plenty of fire but there seems to be a self-imposed constraint too. “Total Holocaust” is dark but didn’t make me shudder. The singer howls as a darkly atmospheric metal song then goes through the motions and various techniques. Again this track doesn’t cross boundaries, and suggests a threat but it is one which is familiar and therefore less of a threat. My ears did prick up upon hearing the sinister, dark and heavy “Unholy Redemption’ but ultimately there was nothing fearsome or shocking about it. There are a lot of roars and rising tones, but the song lacks in edge, ending with an almost cheesy “Unholy Redemption”, as if to remind us what the track was called. After “Eternal Night (Millennia of Might)”, where Hellspirit finally showed their ability to mix atmospheres and styles, the album finishes with a rampant but unmemorable metal song “Blood and Metal”. I thought it had an element of Motorhead about it, but unfortunately competent as it is “Blood and Metal” will not be making my all-time list of great metal tracks.

I think what frustrated me that evidently this is a good band who play their music well, but the content is average. There’s simply nothing exceptional. With more invention, they could bring a lot of more to any metal party, as I suspect they might do when they play live.

(5/10 Andrew Doherty)

http://www.saturnalrecords.com/hellspirit.html

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hellspirit-Official/458108570888110