Haunted Trip

Perhaps the greatest strength of the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal is its sense of unity, mirroring that sense of patriotic brotherhood that largely typified the NWOBHM that heavily influenced it, despite it being a global movement. It isn't just about a shared admiration of the old ways, nor is that necessarily required given that many bands associated with it have crossed over into more modern expressions of the art, but rather about a shared desire to keep the art from falling from grace as it did after its initial run. As such, a split album codifying the shared vision of two bands hailing from the same country, and also showcasing them in a dueling capacity of sorts given their different stylistic flavors, was sure to be in the cards, and the harrowing duo of EPs strung together by Minas Gerais' Hellway Train and Paraná's own Hell Gun (both Brazilian locales) that is Haunted Trip hits all the key marks.

The presentation here is of a highly structured character, to the point of each band offering a methodical EP with a clear introduction and end point, and then putting them together/pitting them against each other in a sort of package deal format. For their part, Hellway Train proves the more old school of the two, sticking pretty close to the early 80s motifs of Judas Priest and mixing in some lighter Savatage elements. They are far from slouches in the metallic department, particularly when considering the gallop-happy, Iron Maiden-like stride of "Soulless On The Run" and the speedy Screaming For Vengeance segment that closes out "Loverdroid", but there is definitely a greater hard rock element at play between the melodic contours of the riff work. Likewise, their most distinctive feature, namely lead vocalist Marc Hellway, is all but a dead-ringer for Brian Johnson during the Back In Black days, which gels well with the band's Priest and Accept tendencies, but has more of a mainstream 80s flavor to it than otherwise.

By a moderate but noteworthy contrast, what Hell Gun brings to the table is more consistently metallic in character, and also leans a bit more into the speed/thrashing territory that was becoming more common in German heavy metal by the mid-1980s. The speed machine "Reign Of Fear" often flirts with full on thrash territory after the example of Kreator and Assassin, helped along by a raw and shriek-happy vocal display out of Matteus Luciano that is a bit too dirty for rock and a health supply of gang choruses that straddle the fence between the deep droning Accept approach and the shouting quality of the thrash metal approach. But where these songs truly get their edge is by the frenzied and occasionally dissonant riffing assault provided by the two Lucas boys' handiwork, which turn generally mid-paced beasts like "Seventh Seal" and "Clockwork War" into colossal anthems that blur the line where 80s traditionalism ends and later 80s aggression begins.

If approaching this release as a competition between two rivals from different parts of the same nation, it's basically a draw between two equally skilled yet very different warriors. Even when looking at their band photos, Hellway Train seems fully entrenched in a 1982-1984 approach to heavy metal that still heavily recalls its 70s rock roots, whereas Hell Gun has more of a 1985-1987 mindset where the Accept and Judas Priest started to give way to Kreator and Sabbat. Which one prefers depends largely on taste, but it's not too much of a stretch for the average old school heavy metal consumer to be taken by both, as each brings enough fire and fury in their own way to be worthy of the visual of a ravenous werewolf stalking the railroad tracks between two cities from two different time periods.