The Need to Kill

Hellbastard made a few waves back in the late 80s with their albums Heading for Internal Darkness and Natural Order, which transformed the band from their crust/punk/crossover roots into pretty much a straight razor of brutal thrash metal. Many years passed, some albums of material were collected and released, but the band truly reformed in 2007 and this new full-length follows largely where Natural Order left off.

The Need to Kill is just under 50 minutes of socially aware thrash metal, 10 new tracks with a few re-recordings tacked on the end. The material is energetic, fun street thrash that would probably appeal equally to fans of Municipal Waste and Destruction. I banged my head out to a few tracks here: "Fir Bolg, Bow to Slough Feg", "Big Business Pig Hole" and "Going Postal", but in all I wouldn't say the album left a lasting impact.

The riffs are punchy, the vocals filthy and aggressive, and worthy of a 1990 mosh pit, but I actually prefer some of the re-recordings of the earlier tracks to the new material. "Justly Executed" from Natural Order is likely the best song on this entire album, and they include a number of decent remakes from the debut. The band is about as good today as they were during the thrash explosion, so if you fondly remember their previous efforts you are the most likely to dig on this.

Highlights: Fir Bolg, Bow to Slough Feg, Going Postal, Justly Executed

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Following on from a quite shabby attempt at an EP, "Eco War", it's a relief for me at least to say that Hellbastard's 2nd post-reformation album "The Need To Kill" is a better listen. Featuring a cleaner and more direct sound than on the EP, it nonetheless purposefully continues the thrashier direction of "Eco War" against the crusty punk the band were known for back in the day, yet not only with a greater degree of conviction but a strong degree of Pantera-styled groove thrown into the mixture too.

While at times showing off a silly, comical side (or at least I hope they view the ridiculous banjo intro and outro to "Anthropological Angst I" in such a way) there is at least something to grab hold of in the Pantera heavy "Anthropological Angst II", the Slayer-meets-Malevolent Creation trip of "Murder Workshop" and the Dark Angel thrashing "Fir Bolg, Bow to Slough Feg". It is these last two songs that best demonstrates just how thrash Hellbastard are now - for the most parts they thrash along at some excellent speeds headed by a vocal style that I've finally come to realise sounds a lot like Phil Rind (Sacred Reich).

It's not all rosy though. Hellbastard are prone to showing their cheeky chappy side by inserting in unnecessary vocals and sounds, destroying perfectly good songs in the process, while in "Cheyne Stoking" and "Stressed" the band inexplicably utilise a male whispered voice atop random background noises that rubs me up the wrong way so severely being called 'stressed' would be a major understatement. Note to all bands: NEVER use a pissed off sounding whisper in any music I have to listen to unless you fancy getting some hate for it - it hurts to listen to.

Finishing with a handful of re-recorded versions of Hellbastard songs of yore that I have never heard and so can't make much comment on, Hellbastard have at least made up of the some ground lost by the piss-poor "Eco War" EP, but whether they gain much recognition from a new generation of metal fans remains to be seen because Hellbastard of today are very much different to the Hellbastard any existing old-school fans will remember them as. A 'good' record but with a loss a ½ point for the excruciating moments of stupidity found within.

Originally written for Rockfreaks.net