Hellfueled Emission of Sins
by Alissa Ordabai
Staff Writer
The spaced-out voice overloaded with delay and channeling both early-days Ozzy and mid-Eighties glam metal, is the first thing you notice about Hellfueled’s debut. Carrying its neat pop melodies over the hooky thrash riffs, the record instantly creates a slightly camp, yet distinctive atmosphere which will remain its main asset and its main distinctive feature from the first track until the last.
The opener “Where Angels Die” lays the cards on the table from the word go – Hellfueled well-honed languid, borderline-stoner vibe, subdued, but still punchy metal riffs, and the overall sleek execution which given a special kind of dandyish glow by the chic, if only detached emotional stance. This peculiar concoction carries itself so fluidly and so confidently that only once the song is over you realise that the band has managed to make do without tension and release, build-up or resolution, leaving you all of a sudden feeling slightly empty.
What follows next are the same studio settings replicated track after track and the same approach to songwriting. The band’s pop-meets-metal recipe, however, is so organic and its nostalgia for their heroes so genuine and endearing, you forgive them the limitations of their concept.
Apart from continuing to mine early Ozzy, standout “In Anger” evokes WASP’s cunningly calculated spacy floatation, mixing it with Vain’s bitter-sweet vibe, preparing us for the biggest highlight of the album – the closing track “End of the Road” – an elegant, spirited, nigh-perfect tribute to the best things pop metal ever had to offer.
The final verdict is that once these Swedes learn how to think in bigger, bolder ideas, start experimenting with juxtaposing light and shade, and stop being afraid of introducing dramatic contrasts into their songwriting, they could well be the ones taking glam metal into the mainstream, heading this genre’s revival Europe has by now nearly given up hope for.
Label: Black Lodge
Track Listing:
1. Where Angels Die
2. Am I Blind
3. I’m the Crucifix
4. A Remission of My Sins
5. Save Me
6. Lost Forever
7. For My Family and Satan
8. In Anger
9. End of the Road
10. Stone by Stone
11. Moving On
Hardrock Haven rating: 6/10