Darkness

Polish Hell-Born have been forging their malignant death metal in fiery pits of hell for around fifteen years now. Their fifth full length album 'Darkness' originally came out in late 2008, and was released in early 2010 as a limited edition including six bonus live tracks.

Since the beginning, Hell-Born's metal has been very much riff-oriented and with headbangable rhythms, just like, let's say Bolt Thrower's. These two bands have similar method of executing their death metal: Rolling, unstoppable force created by the whole band, that rumbles through the walls without effort. Powerful rhythm section mixing thumping bass guitar sound and aforementioned rolling beats create the basis for weighty music. The guitar work is a tad more melodic at times than previously, but still not very melodic for many a listener I bet. It is still very much riff-based, but now there are some fantastic melodic leads. Low, beary and powerful growling coats the hefty music nicely. The production job is modern without any modernity: It's punchy yet organic, just perfect for this kind of death metal.

Hell-Born still sound like themselves for a major part of this album. There's some US stylings, such as Deicide-ism on the verses of '(I Am) The Thorn in the Crown' and 'Submission', while 'Dead Don't Preach' sounds quite a bit like Immolation. When the Swedish feel creeps into the music, something like Unleashed comes to my mind. But as mentioned, Hell-Born have their own sound. They also can groove it out and enter doomier atmospheres, but still staying in death metal sphere. They can keep a listener in their grip for the most of the time, except a couple of less interesting moments here and there. But overall, the compositions are solid. Some spoken words and samples actually manage to lift up atmosphere, instead of ruining anything.

The lyrics are Satanic. Typical Anti-Christian vocabulary and themes are used. Once again, some of them are more or less straight from the Deicide dictionary. Thankfully there is some different lyrics too. Who could resist lines such as "transforming myself into phantom"?! Now that is METAL!

The original release and the limited one look different. I've only got the latter version's booklet, which looks nice, but isn't so easy to read, because of not so steep color differences between the ink and the paper. The bonus live tracks are of bootleg quality, so they definitely do not make it worth purchasing the album twice!

Hell-Born have managed to create a good death metal album, that rely on the past, not modernity. If riff-oriented, rolling stuff is your cup of tea, then I suggest you check out this band ASAP! One of the stronger album from Hell-Born, this one.

(originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com)

I've been a long time follower of Hell-Born, so was looking forward to checking out their most recent effort which they decided on simply calling 'Darkness'. Well, to be honest, there's not much in the way of musical darkness here, but if they had've decided to name the album after the music featured in the album, it'd be more likely to be called 'Mid-Paced Polish Death Metal Pounding'…or something.

Over the years, Hell-Born have progressed a lot in terms of straightforward songwriting ability and dynamic fortitude from a band that started out as a mere side project to Damnation back in 1996 with their self titled debut E.P. But, in recent years, they've pretty much fixated on the sound that they've carried through to this album. For those who aren't aware of the deeper history of Hell-Born, you might be interested to know that they are now the full time job of Baal and Les (former early members of one of Poland's biggest extreme exports Behemoth). At times Hell-Born's sound isn't far removed from latter day Behemoth's, albeit tending to stick firmly to the more mid-paced to slower end of their spectrum. The sterile production suits the calculated, cutting rhythmic style of the music perfectly, with the pounding bassy guitars driving each note home with all the subtlety of sledgehammer. Punctuated with Baal's growls and the pneumatic drumwork of Vader's most recent acquisition, Paul Jaroszewicz, this all makes for a feast of Polish styled death metal. Although these guys started out playing a hybrid of thrashy death metal and black metal in their early days, they have certainly moved 100% into the realm of death metal totality. Personally I preferred their earlier sound slightly better, merely due to the fact there was more variety in their riffage, but still, their modern guise is still somewhat convincing as death metal hopefuls.

Whilst not exactly mind-blowing or life changing, this is packed with thick, meaty riffs throughout. With that said, some of the tracks are definitely stronger than others (as per usual, the opening three tracks are by far the best, with middle sagging slightly before finishing up with a strong album closer). However, there are 9 regular tracks, with 6 bonus live tracks of earlier material so there's a lot to get your teeth into, including a taster of earlier material for the uninitiated. It's not an immediate album (in fact, the first few spins left me decidedly cold). But given time, I eventually realised that 'Darkness' is a genuine slab of mid-paced modern styled death metal.

Originally written for www.metalteamuk.net

I know you're probably straining your eyes at the cover art. So am I. But to be fair, the album is called Darkness. Poland's punishing sons return for their 5th full-length, a mild disappointment after the great Cursed Infernal Steel. But not for lack of trying.

The style on the album is very straightforward brutality with some groove to the riffs, routed in the same primal structures as the early Swedish death metal scene. The majority of the tracks chug along at a mid-pace. While the album carries a bludgeoning, thick as molasses sound, and the leads slice through with pure old school evil, most of the riffs just aren't that interesting. "Refuse to Serve" is a decent album opener, the riffs remind me of Amon Amarth's style of glorious, melodic death metal. After this, one of the faster tracks emerges, "(I Am) The Thorn in the Crown", but it's not quite memorable. The next two tracks were unfortunately forgettable; not until "In Satan We Trust" did I find myself straining my neck again. "Submission", "The Black of Me" and "Hellfire" are all passable, and "Dead Don't Preach" closes the album with a bouncing chug-fest reminiscent of Domination-era Morbid Angel or recent Behemoth on a slow day.

The album sounds thick and menacing, the band is definitely delivering its share of brutality, but the riff writing just seems phoned in. I can't really recommend this album. If you want to check out some far better work from Hell-Born, track down Cursed Infernal Steel or Legacy of the Nephilim, both are quite good.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I’m gonna be honest here, I can’t say I’ve even heard of this band before. And that surprises me since this is their fifth fullength, it contains two ex-members of Behemoth and the current drummer of Vader. Apparently the band also started out as a side-project for Damnation, another fairly high-profiled Polish metal act. So it feels like I should’ve heard of them. But nonetheless this has been one of the hardest records of late to review…

I’ve listened to it so many times now, but still I can’t seem to keep concentrated long enough to actually form an opinion. At one time, or another, my mind drift elsewhere in thoughts, and that’s not good. But then the album has its moments of pure joy, that’s just great. One of those moments is pretty much the entire "Hellfire" track, that has a Vader-esque riffage to it, and a highly shout-along friendly chorus. "The black of me" carries with it passages of subtle whispers, which gives the track a very spooky and ghastly atmosphere; once again great. Taking a track like "(I am) the thorn in the crown" it starts off very pagan-like, and seems to spin in the black metal direction, only to switch into frantic death metal blasting carrying with it some black metal and melody, but still remaining quite firmly in the Vader category. I know, it’s not the most original comparison to make when it comes to a Polish death metal act, but I can’t help it since it has a certain European flavour.

The guitar leads have a certain melodic touch to it, the drumming’s potent and Baal’s voice dwell somewhere in between growl and scream, so it’s quite fitting for the recipe of blackened death metal. Almost every song has a certain amount of blasting, with "Curse me and I win" as an exception to the rule (coincidently it also happens to be the least interesting track on here). There’s nothing wrong with the album per se, it just doesn’t speak to me. It feels a bit like Vader took in some Lord Belial and wound up sounding like a more death metal based European version of Angelcorpse with a hint of Deicide. "Darkness" is a decent album, but not great.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net