AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! Australian masters of heavy fuck*n' Metal are back! It's time for pumping iron, headbanging, bone crushing activities! Hell yeah! Matt's ear-piercing voice, Dave's gargantuan bass, Damien's drums of doom and Jamie's bombastic guitar are here once again. Also, I'd like to thank them for giving me 1.000.000 Euros for this review - nah, just kidding!!!
I still recall the band's previous amazing piece of work called Destructor - yeah, it did manage to destroy my amp and my neighbor's ears but hell yeah, what a great time I had. So on an ordinary day, receiving tons of packages from around the world, I stumbled upon an envelope from Australia. Now, in my mind Australia along with Canada are the two countries that only release fine pieces of work. It's like they have a Metal police allowing what gets to be released or something.
Those of you unaware of this band try to imagine the best possible scenario of a marriage between traditional Metal and epical music (a.k.a. early period of Manowar - respect!) with an outstanding production. And how can an album not reach perfection when it starts off with a frenzied song such as Annihilate? How can you not feel shivers run down your spine when you hear the diamond-like voice of Matt Williams? He is simply THE vocalist that makes all those Power Metal wannabe posers run for cover.
The variety of song structure comes in nice contradiction with the monolithic (sometimes) riffing and that's the beauty of this release. Once again it is proven than no mater how many guitar solos, production tricks, special guests an album might have, it is the magic hidden in its songs' compositions that really counts.
For me Hellhammer can stand with ease next to mythical releases from known bands. Time will tell if the Metal community will finally praise these outstanding musicians, offering them a favorable position in the hall of Metal immortality!