Hell Destroyer

I confess to getting a bit carried away by Cage's last album, the breakthrough Darker Than Black, which was plenty good, but in retrospect, not really that great. Despite the high marks I gave it at the time, I rarely listen to it now, and I skip a lot of tracks. So Cage have staying power issues. Thus I was sure to give their new opus Hell Destroyer plenty of time to wear on me before I reviewed it.

Like Darker Than Black, this new album opens in the strongest way possible with the killer title track (after the inevitable bullshit intro) which is obviously trying to be another "Kill The Devil" and almost succeeds. After this, the album gets rather less interesting, with a whole lot of similar-sounding tracks like "Christhammer", "Abomination", and "Bohemian Grove". The only real points of interest on the landscape from here on out are the excellent "Rise Of The Beast" and the cool "Metal Devil". Interspersed in between are a bunch of lame narrative tracks like "Inauguration", "Cremation Of Care" and "Final Proclamation" which serve only to advance the extremely stupid "Left Behind" style storyline. There are 7 of these worthless bits in total, and their absence would bring the album down to a manageable 14 tracks rather than the mind-numbing 21 listed. The aforementioned story is heavily steeped in modern Xtian bullshit mythology a la The Da Vinci Crap crossed with The Omen, to the point where I have to assume Cage are a bunch of Jesus-fellaters, and this seriously brings down my enjoyment of even the good stuff here.

This album is going to get a lot of salad-tossing as a 'savior of metal' album and 'the new face of heavy metal' and blabbity blabitty. But really, when you trim away all the hype and crapola, there are like 3 good songs on here. They're really good, but they're not superlative by any stretch. Hell Destroyer tries hard, but it's simply not up to the expectations placed on it by either metalheads or the band themselves. A decent album with a few killer tunes, but little more than that.

Originally written for www.metalcrypt.com

This arrived in my mail some night and I was excited just by looking at the cover of the album. I couldn't wait to open it up and start playing that album! The cover art is something you can't ignore, it is really superb and gives a lot of ideas about what the music is about, as well as the title.

Let's get into the music. First things first. This album has some interludes, but they get the flow of the story going (yes, this album has a storyline) and didn't bother me at all. The album starts with "The Ascension" a well written intro with guitars and drums, that ends with: "I've come for you all!" letting all hell break loose! Here comes the "Hell Destroyer" next, that is one of the best fucking tracks of the entire album. Great riffs, excellent drumming and you just got to love Sean Peck's vocals in this one. It might remind you a little bit to Rob Halford, but don't get me wrong, Sean has his own style. This song is so damn powerful it makes me want to run at full speed and try to tackle a cow, get up and start screaming that bloody chorus! After that really heavy and aggressive song, you end up wanting more, and of course you get more. "I Am The King" is the continuation of this carnage being one of the most heavy songs in the album. A great way of continuing where "Hell Destroyer" left off, with great lyrical content and also a powerful chorus, although I have a small problem with this song. Sometimes during the beginning of the chorus it seems like it is the same as the previous song, that is before it starts, then you realize that it is a completely different one. Nevertheless it is still a great track to listen to, gives the album a great start.

Next track is an interlude, "Circle Of Light", this is worth mentioning because it actually takes me back when Jesus was crucified. It tells you about the Christ Hammer and how it is important to the whole story. So you might go figure that the next track is called "Christ Hammer". The first time I listened to this song I was drooling all over my keyboard. It was great, but time goes on and the ending of the song ended up being kind of dull and boring. Don't get me wrong, the first minutes are really great, but then you get to this part when it is just "Hammer Hammer Hammer Hammer of the Christ" kind of ending, with good bass lines but it gets tiring after a while, that is the main issue with this track, but it is still enjoyable the first listens. "Born In Blood" and "Abomination" are the next tracks and both are pretty good, a little below average, but quite enjoyable. Why I talk about these two tracks altogether? Well, if you just put them together, it is like if it was one long track, but quite good. The guitar and bass work are really good on these ones as well as the lyrical content. Fast paced guitar riffing, and excellent drumming makes these tracks quite memorable. We can't forget Sean Peck's screaming here and there, singing his guts out.

Another interlude comes up, this one not as great as the previous one, but once is over, Hell breaks loose once again! After the last tracks, this one is really, really good. "Rise Of The Beast" is also one of the best tracks of the whole album. It starts with a fast guitar, and then the vocals start kicking in. If you don't have the urge to rise your fist in the air as if you were supporting some weird ass politician (or metalhead doing politics) then I don't know what the first part of the song awakes in you, but it definitely makes me rise my fist up in the air. Great lyrical content, great vocal performance, and above all, one of the most enjoyable guitar solos I have heard in a long time. Unfortunately the next interlude pretty much sucks ass and breaks the entire mood of the album as it seems like some retarded dude just played one of his "satanic" albums backwards and you have this weird voice that God knows what it is saying.

"Bohemian Grove" is another fast paced track. It recovers the mood of the album that was lost with "Cremation Of Care" (the retarded voice) there isn't much I haven't said above, so I'll cut to the chase and say it is an average song, but quite enjoyable. It is heavy, great riffs and great drumming.

"From Death To Legend" and "Legion Of Demons" are the next follow up tracks. I just love the first one, fast, heavy, and great vocals continuing with the story line, it is just an awesome track. Not one of the best, but good overall, until "Legion Of Demons" kick in. I don't know why I just can't swallow this song like the rest of the album. It starts really slow and dull, you could just get past this awful intro and get to the good part where the aggressiveness is in, but that isn't until the vocals start kicking in, which are quite decent. I don't think this is a good track, it certainly has its moments, but it isn't memorable.

Then we get to the final part of the album. The final battle between demons and humans, Great climax and of course, great music with it. "Fall Of The Angels", "Fire And Metal" and "Beyond Apocalpse" are one hell of an ending. Although this isn't the end of the album, it is the final battle in the story line. "Fall Of The Angels" might not be as heavy, but it certainly has a really catchy chorus, repetitive at times, but quite enjoyable, while "Fire And Metal" is what heavy metal is about! Great riffs and great lyrics make this song aggressive and takes you to the heat of the battle. "Fire and metal will meet" and fuck they do. Awesome track and great lyrical content regarding the storyline. Now "beyond The Apocalpse" is a must regarding the storyline, but it isn't as good as the previous ones. Yes, mankind survived and will live for another day, that's really great... but not for long.

Now we reach the end of the album. "Metal Devil" kicks in with aggressive vocals and riffs. The resurrection of the Dark Lord and the end of an awesome concept album. This last song is (as most of the album was) really heavy. The chorus might get repetitive for a while, but trust me that it isn't annoying.

I think this is a really unknown gem that you must listen at least once in your life if you love metal. Give it a try and a guarantee you won't regret it. Great vocals, awesome guitar work and excellent drumming makes me give this album a 95%, because it is really good, and sadly, quite unknown. This album is the excellent combination of traditional, power and thrash metal you might be able to find out there. Give the title track a chance and you will get hooked right away.

Cage is one of those bands nowadays that doesn’t seem to get the fame and response that they so much deserve. They did release one of the best heavy metal albums after the millennium, yes the almighty “Darker Than Black”, or maybe it shall be called “Painkiller 2”. Either way, it’s a fantastic album and Cage showed what they’re capable of! 4 years later now, the band is continuing the same path with this album “Hell Destroyer”. It still oozes the kind of heavy metal Judas Priest plays to 99%, Sean Peck still delivers vocals in world class, there’s blistering twin-guitar leads and all that on here too. One have to keep in mind though that it’s a really hard task to follow up with a better album than “Darker”. And yeah, they did not fulfill that task, but that’s no big deal is it? No, because this albums rocks too and is another piece of awesome heavy metal!

Eventhough the album is about 78 minutes long it never really feels like it gets boring. Some shorter, spoken “break songs” may feel a little bit unnecessary, but they are easy to skip allright. Some general fillers like Christ Hammer and Fall Of The Angels but except these there’s just good songs. The lyrical content on here is having a red line, because this is a concept album. The title of the album pretty much says it all, and Cage seems to be a religious band. Briefly it tells of this “Hell Destroyer” who has a mission which is exactly as his name provides, and different things occures on his way and is told through the songs. Only the bonus track King Diamond is outside the concept, since this song is about King Diamond himself (yes, the artist of course). Cool lyrics and a great song, I suppose they found it as a great piece of this record and I must say they’re right. Wonder that King think about it? Some cudos gotta go the great soloing sections as well, the guys has really worked well here, and especially the leads of Abomination and the title track are above awesome. In overall most of the songs are great, but still there’s no really real heights like on “Darker”, instead the songs are more even in general.

The production is also a little bit weaker, and while it’s some more raw energy on here, it’s not at all as punchy and ‘heavy’ as the production of “Darker”. Especially the drums suffered the biggest downfall. The snare sounds like Mike is hitting a tin-can and also quite a farty sound of the bassdrums.

But that is just for the pinicky, because the overall feeling of the album is that the guys has returned with a great heavy metal album. Many will probably not listen to the album ‘all songs in a row’ for many times, but the good songs are enjoyable to mix around a little and just bang som head. It’s an ambitious work this and it shows creativity no doubt. An album for you who’s tired of all the keyboards which are so audible these days in metal and just want some heavy banging, thundering music. Let’s hope it won’t take another 4 years until the next Cage-album.