Lingering around the review list and casting a filthy miasma this US based power trio were crying out ‘In The Name Of Death’ for some coverage. Noting that they are described as playing a form of ‘blackgrind’ ala war metal in salute to the likes of Archgoat, Goatpenis, Black Witchery, and Morbosidad, I knew this was going to be a caustic listening experience but wasn’t quite prepared for the levels of toxicity it was going to involve. Reading myself for some primitive barbarism on the group’s 3rd album and follow up to 2018’s self- descriptive ‘Black Death Terroristic Onslaught’ play was cautiously pressed and once the obligatory intro of bells tolling, crows cawing and low groans was out the way, my guts were literally churning and attempting to void themselves.

Not a pretty picture and not a pretty listening experience and to further explain, this is a dense and tarry sounding release. The trio like their bottom end and to put it mildly use it as a bit of a weapon, which is going to cause problems to the bottoms of anyone listening to it especially at any sort of volume, which of course is going to be a necessity for full impact. As ‘Consumed by the Eternal Darkness ov Death’ plunges into motion there is a leaden sound from the incessant thumping drums, the bass twangs with reverberating tightness in the background, guitars add to the grinding, grim tumult and the vocals are at the low end, craggy, bestial and near inhuman. This one literally shakes the whole room and there’s no escaping from it. As the next track follows it is exactly the same pattern although with an added fuzzy momentary bass shaking solo that threatens to knock all your teeth loose. And so. it continues…

Put simply there is very little variation over the 35-minute runtime here and this leaves me feeling like I am listening to the same song over and over again. There is one notable exception on a few of the songs such as ‘Divinity’s Damnation’ and closer ‘As Above, So Below…Reign ov Luciferian Light.’ It’s akin to changing speed on a record deck from 45 to 33rpm. The pace changes to a doomy dirge and crawls sickly rather than being an all-out attack. At least this gives things a slight bit of definition and it does leave you waiting for these songs once you have listened to the album a few times. They offer a slight relief but are still utterly heavy in execution even if you do feel you are listening to the same songs at a different speed. The only other real thing that stands out here is an extra layer of scuzz and slight lessening of bass heft on ‘Beneath the Black Moons Incantation’ which gives things a bit more definition in the mix.

No denying this is raw, extreme and nasty but I just found it got stale and boring all too quickly. I expect that Hellfire Deathcult are a suitably crushing experience live but this just wasn’t for me as recorded output.

(5/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/HellfireDeathcult

https://regainrecords.bandcamp.com/album/al-nombre-de-la-muerte