Hellstorm

Up until recently, nobody had any clue who was really behind this project(I figured it was probabaly Chase, owner of Hells Headbanger records). Apparently, its the guy from Toxic Holocaust, who I don't really care about. But it seems respectable to me to keep your identity concealed so as to prevent bias toward this side project. Toxic Holocaust to me seems almost like some kind of guitar dive bomb comedy act, but this project aims to pay tribute to some of extreme metal's all important forerunners. In this case, the mighty Hellhammer and Discharge.

And that is exactly what this 7 inch accomplishes. There is no attempt to do anything original, but rather combine the sound of the two afformentioned bands into one lethal concoction. All four songs stay up tempo for most of the song, with simple thrashy punk beats that remind of faster Hellhammer or most discharge songs. Occasionally, slighly slower circle pit riffs emerge, and because of the lack of variation in tempo, the breaks are all the more sick when they do appear.

The riffs themselves are almost a perfect crossbreed of the influences, and quite a few of them could have served in songs from either band. However, I'd say this record leans just a tad bit more toward Hellhammer, as its just a little too heavy to be punk in some places. The vocals are also a little more up the alley of 80's extreme metal, and consist of a reverb heavy shout, with the occasional Tom Warrior styled ugh's and high pitched Yeow! The lyrics are also mostly apocalyptic, but more in the psedo satanic way, as opposed to Discharge's anarcho-peace rhetoric of exposing the horrors of war. There is also an occasional lead, which reminds me of certain simpler Discharge leads.

I honestly really enjoy this record. Though it is obviously an unoriginal attempt to mimick the sounds of yesteryear, one can't really complain with the results. The influence of both Hellhammer and Discharge is still extremley prevailent in the underground scene to this day, so it makes sense that somebody wanted to do a project mixing the sounds of these seminal bands. Being that these have been two of my favorite bands for quite some time, I for one can't get enough of it. If you like these bands, then try to find this record, which could prove to be no easy task. I just hope this project continues because the 8 minutes of material so far certainly left me wanting more.