Recent Reviews

November 2024

October 2024

September 2024

August 2024

[ More Music Reviews ]


Hell: Human Remains
Hell Human Remains album new music review

Hell: Human Remains

Heavy Metal (NWOBHM)
5.0/5.0

Nuclear Blast
Website Facebook Twitter MySpace
by Craig Hartranft,  05.09.2011

Hell has no greater fury than when it's ignored. This is true both spiritually and musically, especially when it means England's New Wave of British Heavy Metal legends, Hell. Honored by distinguished peers like Lars Ulrich and Geoff Barton, Hell's story is tragic. Major recognition came from numerous demos and memorable live performances. A deal with Mausoleum Records collapsed when the label went bankrupt. Then death struck in 1987 as singer/guitarist Dave Halliday took his own life. The band had enough, but the end was not yet.

Enter Andy Sneap, founder of Sabbat, music producer, Halliday pupil, and longtime fan of Hell. Uniting with the original members Kev Bower (g/k), Tony Speakman (b) and Tim Bowler (d), Sneap offered to re-record the old material with himself on guitar and David Bower on vocals. Human Remains is the result: the long awaited Hell album that should have been and now is.

Human Remains is pure classic heavy metal in the NWOBHM tradition. But this not some trip down memory lane to revisit or reminisce about metal's glorious history. No, this is vital metal for a new century, fresh and entertaining, positively refreshing against the current modern hardcore trends.

Hell creates their heavy metal on huge canvas. Epic, theatrical, immense and dense with metal riffage describe the nature of the songs, especially on the longer songs Blasphemy and the Master, The Devil's Deadly Weapon, MacBeth, and No Martyr's Cage. Blasphemy and the Master is deep and foreboding demonstrating that Hell were one of the pioneers of occult metal in England. The Devil's Deadly Weapon can only be described as a majestic piece of melodic metal brimming with grandeur.

Hell is not all about the devil and pitchforks. They get historic on Plague and Fyre, a tale of tragedy in medieval England; spark with social conscience against priest abuse on Save Us from Those Who Would Save Us; and Shakespearean on the aforementioned MacBeth. Echoing a metal similar to Judas Priest, Let Battle Commence and The Quest, are crisp, catchy, and melodic numbers. And The Quest, considering the general foreboding content throughout, is possibly the lightest most positive number on the album.

Long overdue but well worth the wait, Hell's Human Remains is another salvo of true classic heavy metal for a new century. This blistering and intense, epic and entertaining, platter of pure metal is just the injection of energy and excitement the genre needs in this day.




CraigHartranft.net - New fiction, crime fiction by Craig Hartranft

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

In Short

Long overdue but well worth the wait, Hell's Human Remains is another salvo of true classic heavy metal for a new century. This blistering and intense, epic and entertaining, platter of pure metal is just the injection of energy and excitement the genre needs in this day.

Find A Review

Alphabetical Index

a b c d e f g h i j
k l m n o p q r s t
u v w x y z #
New & Notable
Read the Lionville: Supernatural Album Review

eviewing my archives, I was pleased to find that I have had the privilege to review every Lionville since their self-titled debut in 2011. Formed by Stefano Lionetti, a songwriter, singer and guitarist based in ... [ Read More ]