Sea of Nausea

It's really amazing how diverse and large the metal genre has become since the early 70s. Who would've thought back then that blues inspired hard rock would spawn such a huge number of bands? Of course, it's great that we get to listen to so many amazing bands nowadays. But with a genre as huge as Mount Everest, there's bound to be many bands who not only manage to miss the whole point, but also assault our precious ears. Hellhaunt is one of those bands.

I can summarize the whole album in just one sentence if you have no desire to read on: piss poor attempt at black/thrash and nothing more. If you do want more, here it is. What it seems to me is that band is trying very hard to be like the classic old school first wave of black metal bands. However, they fail at every aspect in trying to do so. The riffs, the vocals, the production, everything is just done wrong. Let me start with the production. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but when bands like Sabbat and Venom had a bad production, it wasn't because they wanted to have a bad production. It was because they couldn't afford a good one. Sure it added to the charm of the music but that was because the production wasn't bad enough to annoy the crap out of people. On this album, however, any catchiness the riffs or vocals might have had are utterly torn apart due to the 'kvlt' production.

As far the music goes, it really isn't much better. Most of the 'thrashy' riffs just sound like someone playing open strings on the guitar over and over again, but this is partly due to the production. The tremolo riffs are very badly done. They sound nothing short of atrocious. The guitarist chooses a random note, alternate picks it and slowly moves higher up the guitar fret. In other words you just hear a culmination of coherent notes. The drumming is super repetitive and thanks to the production, violates my ears quite badly, particularly when the drummer plays the cymbals. It honestly sounds like the drummer is playing the same beat over and over and over and over again in the entire album.

The vocals are unnoticeable at best and absolutely agitating at worst. They sound muffled due to the production anyway, but even if it wasn't for the production, I'm quite positive we'd still have a terrible vocalist. I mean, seriously, not one rasp he does sounds appealing, not one note that comes out of his throat sounds right, not one point in the whole album which makes me think 'Gee, maybe he isn't so bad after all'. Well, at least they got the Hellhammer's cover of The Reaper right. Except the riffs are still indiscernible, the vocals are still a pain to listen to, the drums still manage to molest my ears and there is none of the atmosphere or catchiness that makes the original good.

On the positive side, the intro riff to Hellhound Of Heresy isn't too bad. It's kinda catchy and the whole track is probably the best on the album, which is a surprise considering it is the longest song on the album so I'd expect it to be the worst to listen to. Then again, just because the track is better than the others doesn't mean it's good. It's pretty much like saying that being stabbed in the stomach isn't as bad as being stabbed in the throat. There is some intensity to the album's effort but again, the production doesn't let me enjoy this simple attribute either.

That's it. This is one of the worst albums I've heard in recent memory. It's revolting, it's poorly done, it's a dreadful experience to listen to. If you're up for an ear bleeding, extensively exasperating and overall vomit inducing experience, this album is for you. But let's look at the bright side. At least the album lives up to it's title.