Holy Hell

I think Rob Rock's Holy Hell may have been the first metal CD I actually owned. This was due to the fact that my parents weren't at all keen on me listening to non-Christian music, and this bridged the gap of being both Christian enough to appease them, while also being a pretty cool piece of power metal. It wasn't the first metal album I heard, but it was pretty early on. I remember finding it shortly after my dad refused to let me buy Dragonforce's Valley of the Damned. So, as a disclaimer, I'm sure my description of the actual music will be somewhat tainted by my own personal memories of the album, but being that it's important to me and is still actually a cool USPM album that's relatively unknown, I'm going to give it a go anyway.

Holy Hell is the third release from Mr. Rock, and he certainly turned things up a notch with this one, as the first two are relatively bland and forgettable, to my ears at least. Of course, this solo project is far from Rob's first foray into metal, as he was involved with Impellitteri and the lesser-known Driver as far back as the late '80s. The '80s classic heavy metal influence certainly shows, in the riffing as well as Rock's somewhat gruff delivery, though he goes into piercing shrieks quite often as well, displaying quite a range and a commanding presence. While he doesn't sound terribly distinct when compared to many vocalists from similar bands (Dickinson comes to mind, though Rock isn't quite on that level), his performance is engaging enough to draw the listener in even on top of some pretty aggressive and flashy riffs.

While the songwriting is clearly grounded in the classic heavy metal/USPM style, it is quite thrashy at times, as evidenced immediately in the first track, "Slayer of Souls," whose main riff is pure thrash, vicious and aggressive right out of the gates. This is one of the better tracks, too, as I feel the songwriting is pretty tight and the vocal lines don't clash with the riffs at any point. They do sometimes in other songs, which is probably the biggest flaw of the album, though it's never anything overt, just sometimes vocal lines that seem too melodramatic for the riffing style underneath, or just not quite feeling in sync in regards to tempo. This is evident in "First Winds of the End of Time," one of the album's weaker tracks. The title track, "Lion of Judah," and "I'm A Warrior" are all quite excellent, though, especially the latter, which serves as the centerpiece of the album, by far the most driving and catchy, making it difficult not to sing along "I'M A WAAAARIOOOR! TAKE MY HAAAND!" with Mr. Rock in the chorus.

Unfortunately, following "I'm A Warrior" is the album's ballad, "I'll Be Waiting For You," which is easily the worst track here. Simply put, Rock just doesn't seem capable of writing/performing an effective ballad. This one is very sappy, generic nonsense. Thankfully, it's followed by "When Darkness Reigns," a return to the style of the rest of the album and one of the better tracks to be found, with a monstrous main riff and a swirling, ambitious chorus. "The Revelation" is also pretty cool, featuring some rad multi-tracked vocals in the chorus, though the verses are a bit by-the-numbers, even for Rob. At the end of the album, we have the inexplicable choice to cover ABBA's "Move On," as though somehow the insufferable "I'll Be Waiting for You" weren't enough. It seems Mr. Rock overestimates his range of ability in regards to style; he's great on the straight-ahead metal numbers, and nothing else. To his credit, he does give a pretty strong, sincere vocal performance, but if nothing else it's quite jarring to move from thrashy, Maidenish USPM to...ABBA. Along with "I'll Be Waiting for You," this is best skipped.

Ultimately, barring the two ballads, this is some very strong heavy metal that has gone under the radar for many. In regards to the Christian lyrical content, I understand that this may be a turn-off for many, myself included for lyrics that are too preachy, but this remains fairly tasteful, merely incorporating the Christian mythos into adventurous, fantastical power metal lyrics, for the most part. If you're a fan of the style and haven't delved into Mr. Rock's catalog, I would definitely recommend Holy Hell, followed by its successor Garden of Chaos. You won't be disappointed (except by the man's love for ABBA!).

So, the new Rob Rock CD has dropped. Beautiful. It's titled Holy Hell. Excellent. Do you know why they went with that as a title? No. I bet no one really does, but chances are that's going to be the first question on every interview the band does. But, one thing is for sure, it's one thing you are going to shout as soon as this CD starts.

For those of you who have never heard a Rob Rock CD before, chances are you will be in for a real treat with this one. The man who named the band after himself has been involved with many influential metal bands, including the ranks of Impelliteri, Avantasia, Axel Rudi Pell, and Jack Frost just to name a few. He definately knows what going on, and definately has an amazing sound on this album, which is easily describable as a sort of Judas Priest meets Iron Maiden feel a good majority of the time.

The album kicks off with the track "Slayer Of Souls", which is an excellent start. Pulse pounding drums and insane guitar riffs will grab you by the balls and not let go. This pace continues on through the CD, with the standout tracks definately being "First Winds of The End Of Time" and "I'm A Warrior", a more old-school traditional heavy metal track amongst all the others.

At the track "I'll Be Waiting For You", you are greeted by an old school ballad. The song isn't quite the best ballad ever released on a metal song, sort of giving off a slight Poison feel to it all the same time (bare in the mind the use of the word "slight"), but still a decent one at that. The only problem with this is that after six songs of classic metal, it just doesn't quite fit, it comes out of nowhere. While you'll want to break out the lighters, there's a good possibility you will want to skip this track in the future to try and keep the speed-feel of the album going. Everything picks up once again at the track "When Darkness Reigns", when it picks up for one more track before slowing down again on the song "Move On".

All in all, Holy Hell by Rob Rock is possibly one of the best heavy metal and/or power metal releases to have come out for the year. With his extensive and impressive background, it's no wonder why he is able to pull together such an amazing sound on Holy Hell from start to end. So if you are looking for that CD that will take you by surprise, or are just curious about what it might sound like if Judas Priest and Iron Maiden became one, then this CD is definitely for you.