HELL

I damn near missed this one, and what an unforgivable crime that would have been. U.K. occult metal act and obscure NWOBHM fringe sitters HELL released multiple demos during 1982-1986, but never got over the hump. Many years later SABBAT vet, acclaimed producer, and dedicated HELL fan Andy Sneap got to chatting with a few HELL members about releasing new material, and ended up joining the band. The first order of business was the release of "Human Remains", re-recordings of 10 of those demo cuts that retain the unique style of the originals, updated with Sneap's razor-sharp production, and ends up a surprisingly fresh, high impact release in 2011.

It is an oversimplification to dub "Human Remains" a NWOBHM album, though the style similarities are present. The riffing is hotter than blazes, often in the realm of a JUDAS PRIEST or an ACCEPT, but the nefarious symphonic expansiveness just as often is rather like that of NWOBHM in collusion with DIMMU BORGIR. What one hears is the evil grandiosity of the latter and the heavy metal thunder of the former, while other moments recall a mutation of ANGEL WITCH and MERCYFUL FATE. Vocalist David Bower is the grand master of ceremonies, his versatility and command of inflection, tone, and ever shifting conveyance of emotion in service to the song unparalleled. Perhaps grating to some, his delivery is anything but staid, moving into spaces occupied by everyone from King Diamond (sans the high falsetto) to a heavy metal version of a less cartoonish Jello Biafra (DEAD KENNEDYS).

The songs combine the guts of NWOBHM riff fire and twin-lead melody and symphonic bombast. "On Earth as it is in Hell" is the middle ground; aggressive in its heavy metal guitars and melodic/majestic in its choral sections. Moving into what would now be considered power metal, "Plague and Fyre" offers some of the same elements and includes the Bower spoken sections that are found throughout the album. "Blasphemy & The Master" is both forged in Birmingham fire and injected with HELL's macabre flourishes. "Let Battle Commence" gets it done in more traditional up-tempo fashion similar to that of "The Quest", albeit with much better results. The 10-minute "The Devil's Deadly Weapon" is powered with ACCEPT muscle, yet wrapped up in a more contemporary ('80s style, 2011 production) melodic metal package. With its bubbling cauldron of sounds/samples and fiery six-strings, "Macbeth" threatens to reach that same epic quality, but falls a bit short, as is the case with the nine-minute "No Martyrs Cage".

There isn't anything out there right now that sounds quite like HELL's "Human Remains", the familiarity of certain aspects of it notwithstanding. And that's a very good thing in this case. Only occasionally does "Human Remains" spin its wheels and sputter, and even then it would be difficult to consider any of it to be truly flawed, much less fatally. The band's return is a welcome one and the thought of new material is exciting as HELL.