I am going to start this review by quoting a few lines from the band's official biography: HELGRIND's aim is to be one of the most distinctive, influential and extreme UK thrash metal band. This EP is the band's second attempt to achieve their aforementioned goal since their debut release and more melodic Denial saw the light of the day in 2005.
First of all HELGRIND deserve some credit for the really cool (satanic) artwork and for the fact that they come from the British Metal scene that is rather poor when it comes to freshly formed Thrash Metal bands. As the CD spins in my player I am thinking that this is only credit that HELGRIND will get from me. The reason for this is that the band implements the SLAYER influences by creating an album that sound like them. Fallen Prophet opens the EP with a scream that immediately brought Tom Araya in my mind from War Ensemble. Actually Paul Nelson follows (or should I say copies...) Araya's monotonous yet expressional performing pattern. The SLAYER influences make their presence more distinct during the guitar solo where the vibrato and the screaming high pitched musical notes look upon the famous duel Thrash axemen.
Don't get me wrong: the music of HELGRIND is pretty good and carries successfully the banner of the old-school Thrash Metal. Face Of Evil is characterized by the rough production that gave the drums a really annoying sound. Insanity Rules is the a classic guitar driven headbanger while the next track One Solution is best of the four creating a real evil dark atmosphere with melodic breaks and the Thrash outbreak near the end.
Well, this release is nothing special or groundbreaking; the band reproduces the 80s atmosphere with pretty good success. My opinion is that they should work more on their sound in order to make it more personal and take a significant distance from SLAYER. You can check them out in their MySpace page by clicking here.