The name HELGRIND sounded familiar and after a short research I found out that I had already reviewed their Fallen Prophet Ep. Actually, I did not think high of them since the overwhelming SLAYER influences were a turn off for me. So, here I have a second chance to say something better about this British act than I did a couple months ago.
HELGRIND (that stands for the name of the main entrance to Hel in the Norse mythology) were formed in 2000 and come from the UK. The British act made the prime discographic step with ”Denial” that saw the light of the day in 2005.
The short intro The Confession builds a nice atmosphere until Death Squad hits you in the face. This heavy Thrasher enters with a massive drum work, solid guitars and the rather monotonous vocals. Actually, these vocals are not my cup of tea due to the colorless timbre through the typical distortion. I believe that if a band wants to stand out from the rest needs something different behind the microphone and based on my taste Paul Nelson fails to satisfy this need. The clean guitar instrumental leads to the mid tempo Violation; this track gives another perspective to HELGRIND's music with a melodic backbone served through the super-tight guitar guitars and the nice solo in the middle. Definitely the band worked and rehearsed a lot since there are some fresh ideas in this album. Of course, the SLAYER influences are not totally eliminated but are welcome in the fast riff killer Forbidden Lust and the headbangers Witchery and Baptised In Hate.
Generally, the production of the album comes pretty strong with fat and sometimes atmospheric sound; specifically the drums deserved better treatment since they sound rather 'dry' and most of the times loud enough to blur the guitars.
So, HELGRIND return with a nice full length album that comprises several signs of improvement and sure they deserve additional credit for this. The guitars and especially the leads are their strongest element in their Thrash oriented music that offers some good reasons for headbanging. As I said the vocals are HELGRIND's Achilles heel but it is not something way too difficult to improve. Let's see what will happen with them. Until then pay a visit to the band's official myspace page and listen for yourself some tracks from this release.

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