Hell

It's not talked about too much, but the late 2000s and early 2010s saw the rise of some good feel-bad sludge/doom metal bands like Primitive Man, Thou, Mizmor, Meth Drinker, and Hell. Not to be confused with the 80s NWOBHM band that got revived as an Andy Sneap project, this Hell band has been captained solely by a man who goes by the tag MSW. In the studio, he does everything by himself. Drums, bass, guitars. He shares vocal duties with two guests, one of whom is ALN from Mizmor. Hell's turned into one of the top doom bands of this decade and all of MSW's material has been damn solid at worst. Hell's first album, called... Hell, has everything you need to know about the band from a glance. The artwork and song titles are very fitting for the music.

When I say the term feel-bad to describe all the bands in the previous paragraph, I mean it's doom metal that's just oozing with negative energy. Lots of droning heaviness and a lack of clean singing are basically prerequisites. Hell have both. The band's style of doom is very stoner sounding, but not the wild "We're going to drop acid and travel through space using our minds." While Hell's guitar tone sounds is very Black Sabbath sounding and the bass is super thick, the songs are not catchy and I imagine the stoned interpretation of this album's sound is an actual journey through the burning underworld.

One addendum, the only song I would describe as "catchy" would be "Brutus" which is also the only part of the album where the song gets a rather up-tempo swing just beyond halfway through. Beyond that, all the riffs are rather simple and often divided by periods of droning feedback, but the presentation is just done so well that it actually sounds mind blowing even to somebody not into hallucinogenics like myself. This is all topped off with the eerie screeching vocals. They're not anguished or pained, or rather emotional at all. They sound like a bat-winged imp screaming into your ear.

Considering this is an album that ends itself with 15 minutes of droning noise, Hell can be a bit of a slow grower, but it hits super hard when you're looking for something that's pure pessimism. Whether you're looking for a new band to steal Eyehategod's flag or looking for something that sounds like YOB taken to an ultra-abrasive extreme, Hell are a band worth checking out.