HELL: 'The Age Of Nefarious' EP Details Revealed

Reactivated British occult metal legends HELL have unveiled the first details of their new single, "The Age Of Nefarious", to be released on October 25 via Nuclear Blast Records. The 10-inch vinyl will come in several different colors and will include the title track plus live versions of three songs recorded at this year's Bloodstock Open Air festival.

"The Age Of Nefarious" single track listing:

Side A:

01. The Age Of Nefarious
02. On Earth As It Is In Hell (live)

Side B:

01. Blasphemy And The Master (live)
02. The Oppressors (live)

After disbanding in 1987, HELL was reincarnated in 2011, with Andy Sneap (guitar) and David Bower (vocals) joining original members Kev Bower (guitar, keyboards),Tony Speakman (bass) and Tim Bowler (drums). Now the British quintet is about the release the follow-up to its highly acclaimed 2011 debut, "Human Remains". The band's sophomore offering, "Curse And Chapter", will be made avialable on November 22 via Nuclear Blast. The effort will include a bonus DVD containing six songs from HELL's February 23, 2013 show at the Darwin Suite Assembly Rooms in Derby.

Commented Kev Bower: "In a world dominated by conflict, disease, corruption, poverty, disaster and crime — much of which has religion at its source — this is truly the dawning of 'The Age Of Nefarious'.

"The song was always going to be the perfect opener for the new 'Curse And Chapter' album since it lays the foundation for everything which follows, but when we were approached by our friends at Nuclear Blast with the idea of producing a lead-off EP, we also decided that out of four possible EP album-track candidates, this song should also be the one. It represents everything which HELL represents — it powers along in awe-inspiring majesty, but takes lots of unexpected twists and turns before reaching its inevitable conclusion. The artwork is once again the result of our collaboration with Dan Goldsworthy, and it shows just a tiny fraction of the artwork he has created for 'Curse And Chapter'.

"With regard to the additional live tracks, where better to have recorded these than from the main stage at Bloodstock Open Air 2013 — the spiritual home of U.K. metal, during one of the best shows we have ever played, and in front of 10,000 of the most dedicated metalheads in the world.

"We are proud to be giving you a glimpse into the second chapter."

Sneap recently stated about the upcoming CD: "We've been working solid on the album for the last couple of months between gigs, although we've been demoing to a good standard over the last year or so.

"This time around the album consists of around 50% old material, 50% new.

"We really see this as a band that's moving forward rather than a nostalgia trip. Obviously, there's a lot of history within the band, but there's also a whole world of ideas we want to get out.

"I'm super happy with how things are shaping up. It feels more like a band on this record to me than the first, which, I guess, is just a natural progression of everyone playing together a lot more over the last couple of years."

Concerning the lyrical content, vocalist David Bower added: "Alongside some of our favorite themes of historical, political and religious persecution, intolerance and prejudice, you will find some good old fashioned myths and legends being invoked and reinterpreted in our own inimitable way. We also have some songs in which the listener will be implicitly invited to solve the clues contained in the lyrics in order to find the meaning of the stories for themselves. Being completely aware that many people interpret things in ways that writers do not expect as a matter of course, it seemed logical to take that idea a little further."

About the album title, Bower explained: "It's a hellish play on words of the English saying chapter and verse, and also a reference to a song lyric in 'The Age Of Nefarious', the opening track on the record."

"Human Remains" entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 46.

Cited as a huge indirect influence, and as one of the true founding fathers of occult metal, HELL formed in 1982 from the carcasses of U.K. metal bands RACE AGAINST TIME and PARALEX, whose "White Lightning" EP was listed by METALLICA as a favorite, and which was subsequently included on the Lars Ulrich, Geoff Barton "NWOBHM '79 Revisited" sampler album.

Despite over five years of constant touring, the band was cruelly overlooked by the '80s music press, who just didn't get it. HELL were too different, too extreme, too musically intelligent and far too thought-provoking for all but the most enlightened to understand them. The final crushing blow came when their long-awaited 1986 album deal with Mausoleum collapsed as the label went bankrupt, followed by the tragic suicide of singer/guitarist Dave Halliday in 1987. The remaining members drew a line in the sand and stopped playing overnight.