You gotta love finding a band that shreds your eardrums, is still active, and who you stand a good chance of catching live. I mean, there's the shame of realizing it took you six albums before they hit your radar, but, hey, the metalunderground is as dark and winding as it is prolific. So, allow me to introduce you to ALL HELL, a Blackened Thrash Metal trio out of Asheville, North Carolina. On October 10, 2025 they release their fifth full-length album, Sunsetter, via Terminus Hate City. And by "sunsetter" they aren't referring to riding off into a sunset and hanging up their gear; it's more about the living dead rising to feast on humanity in savage bloodlust to the fearsome riffs and rhythms of Blackened Thrash. 

ALL HELL wastes no time in getting to it. The first track, "Exiled into Nod" practically starts mid-riff. No ambient intro, no acoustic lullaby, no field recordings of birds or thunder or some witches' sabbat—just raw fucking metal right down your throat. The way Lucifer meant it to be.

I'm not going to give a track-by-track review. We're talking 11 tracks ranging from 1:42 to 4:06 for a total of 33 minutes. And while that's the equivalent runtime of a short Sludge Metal track, I will say ALL HELL works in some surprising sophistication into their compositions. Not prog-level, but also not Black 'n' Roll. There are movements, layering, and, gods forbid, actual melodies.

Highlights include the title track, "Sunsetter," which features a solo by guest guitarist Nate Garnette (SKELETONWITCH) and is reminiscent of SATYRICON's "Black Crow on a Tombstone"; "The Outer Night" which closes the album with an air of grand epic-ness; and "Dominus Sanguis, Domina Nox" a vicious track that veers deep into the Black Metal hellscape complete with tremolo riffs and breaks that threaten to induce internal hemorrhaging. I also really enjoyed the opening track, "Exiled into Nod" with its infectious chorus "Cursed by devils / cursed by god/ cast out / exiled into Nod." Not suggesting there are only four great tracks on this album; there are, in fact, 11 great tracks on this album.

My future includes spending numerous hours exploring this band's discography, but I sense already that this album marks something of an inflection for ALL HELL. It seems they have a new drummer since their last release in 2023 and judging from the progression of album covers this album seems to mark something of an inflection point. Earlier cover art comprises a kind of home spun artistry and three feature a vamp that could be straight from the annals of Vampire the Masquerade. And then there's Sunsetter. The cover of Sunsetter, rendered by Jacob Curwen, suggests some digital touches but the overall imagery from the cruciform nimbus to the city on flames to the blood-soaked moon all strike a more somber and serious tone than previous album covers.  

Bottomline: ALL HELL's Sunsetter. Vicious Blackened Thrash out the Blue Ridge Mountains. Intertwines Thrash, Death, and Black with lethal intent. A must for extreme metal fans.