[RUIN NATION RECORDS]
You know something special is going to happen when Hellkrusher announce the release of a new album.
It’s been over 20 years since ‘Doomsday Hour’ was released and apart from a few split EPs (one just recently), there has been no fourth full-length recorded output on the horizon.
Maintaining the core personnel of Ali, Scotty, Rob & Curry, who appeared on the previous release, the now-four-piece lineup has been touring ever since and has not rested.
When I found out in 2015 that they were going back into the studio to record again, I assumed it would not be long before we’d have physical product to savour. Now it’s the back end of 2017 and the new album has only just been put to bed. Several challenges have had to be overcome but now we can look forward to a bit of ‘misery’ so to speak.
For those of you who have seen them play live in the past couple of years, many of these tracks should be pretty familiar. The album opener ‘Thieves and Liars’ has a great opening rally of a Scotty riff that is accompanied by the precision thunder from Curry and Rob, before Ali launches into the song with a scathing, vicious vocal assault.
It’s evident that the pace of ‘Human Misery’ is not as frenetic as earlier releases (notably the ‘Buildings For The Rich’ album), but with the slower pace comes a crustier, angrier sound that is catchy at the same time.
Indeed, the title track is medium-paced, but has that menacing riffage that is pushed along by the drumming into a bridge that goes slower again for what could have been called a “slow-mosh” in the say, punctuated by quickened interludes.
Other tracks simply exude D-Beat class, such as ‘Blind’, with its singalong chorus, ‘Desensitise’ and ‘No Fucking Heroes’.
There is no set formula here, only an evolution of what has gone before, as the years on the road have given them time to grow. It is undeniably Hellkrusher in its sound and is, undoubtedly, their finest release to date!
(PAUL)
To read more reviews, head over to Anger Burning Issue 5 as PDF
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