The name suggests a smugglers hideaway and indeed has literary ties to Treasure Island and Devon but it is actually Portugal we are heading to and a debut album that we are told should appeal to fans of bands such as Sepultura, Hatebreed, Unearth and Killswitch Engage. That’s pretty much on the ball too as far as the metalcore wreckage that this trio pump out is concerned.

There’s a large degree of adventure in the intro piece Lutar Até Ao Fim which promises a ‘fight to the end.’ It’s a hostile orchestral piece in the vein of Holst bringing war and sounds like we could be about to fly into an album of symphonic black metal. That may well be a misnomer but I’m sure it does the business as a live opener and gets the crowds pumped up nicely. From here we batter into the bruising ‘Angel’s Fall’ with flailing riffs, beefy bellows and an antagonistic yet melodic edge. “Feed the world to the wolves” yells out the singer and this is a solid and pulverising start to things. Hardcore and even a bit of D-beat peppers ‘The Wolf’ and as possibly anticipated due to the metalcore tag we get some cleaner singing tones thrown in for good measure. Naturally this gives the music more of a crossover appeal and a slightly commercial slant but it works ok and the group go on to throw some glitchy electronica into things on next track ‘Broken Pieces’ showing they have no shortage of ideas. Vocally at times I am reminded a bit of Crowbar and Kirk Windstein when the extremer end is let loose but personally, I have to admit the cleaner melodic chorus on songs like this doesn’t really endear me to things and turns it all a bit too ‘on trend.’

Still the layering up of groove and antagonism on songs like ‘Standing Alone’ goes down well and the cleaner parts here would not be out of place on a song by the likes of A Pale Horse Named Death hitting the mark well before ‘Blindness’ provides a pretty damn meaty beating down. Electronics and burliness mix well together on ‘The Calling’ but the chorus is just too pop laden for my tastes. Still if you are looking for a song that gets under the skin and encourages you to join in, the hooks will certainly do that. I wouldn’t call the album ‘Broken,’ as it works well and has some good punishing hooks which land you flat on your back after punching you round the chops. Black Hill Cove are however going to extend a hand and make sure you are OK and after providing some bruising moments will proffer the hand of friendship and help you back on your feet. They would go down well as support if any of the aforementioned bands manage to pop into town and will get a crowd pumped up and jumping around in the pit to chugging groovers like ‘Kill The Beast.’ If you have a fondness for Pantera and Machine Head too and don’t mind the occasional clean harmonies this could well be just the album for you.

(7/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/Blackhillcove

https://ragingplanet.bandcamp.com/album/black-hill-cove-broken