Ever wondered what a modern day soundtrack to 90s classic zombie shoot ‘em up Doom might sound like? Well, either intentionally or not, Hell:On appeared to have stumbled headlong onto the perfect formula with combat trousers, jackboots and double barrelled shotgun flailing in a hail of blood and bullets. Now, I’m not averse to a bit of video-game death metal. This is a crisply produced mix of semi-melodic, pummelling riffs, gruff, ranted vocals and frenetic guitar solos so fast and expertly executed that they could easily induce a stroke in the feeble of heart. More thrash than actual death metal, it’s the perfect soundtrack for taking on armies of zombies and bursting one-eyed floating demons by the dozen. The skill is to time your fire button to coincide with those hammering bass lines that are designed, I’m sure, to shake the sweat from the very ceilings of underground clubs all across the band’s native Ukraine.
For maximum kill count I would highly recommend second track Delirium and maybe Obliteration if you’ve switched to chain gun. Add to that a few eastern acoustics in a Behemoth style and hellish effects and this is a decent slab that should have fans of anything from Exodus to…. er, well Exodus mainly – pricking up their ears. It’s difficult to criticise something that’s old school thrash revisited with a keenly-sharpened digitally remastered death metal edge. In many respects this is simply a fine example of heavy metal. But it’s the soaring solos here that really save the day – cranking things up just when they’re needed and lifting the thrash-fest from merely being a mosh pit extravaganza. It’s enough to tip the average thrash fan into a static, goggle-eyed, head nodding frenzy within a few seconds.
Listening to tracks like Self Destruction and Salvation in Death with their single beam riffs, hooky choruses and catchy effects almost had me. It’s perhaps not surprising given these guys are on their fifth album and, if they managed to replicate the verve and vigour on display here in a live setting, they could easily be stepping up on the bill behind the likes of other ear candy like Amon Amarth. But while these hairy Ukrainian death metal thrashers blow a ton of party death metal and thrash pretenders out of the water by bringing their hell down to earth, I’m not picking up a huge amount that couldn’t have been ushered forth at any point in the past decade or more – but that’s not to say it won’t rock your world. Yes, this is death metal for the PlayStation generation, but it’s all done with a darkly executed finesse.
(7.5/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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