HELLRIPPER

A formidable, one-man force for blackened thrash metal excellence, James McBain has steered the good ship HELLRIPPER through more than a decade's worth of choppy waters. By far the most interesting and dynamic band to emerge from that curious combination of excoriating thrash and mystical, malevolent black metal, the Scots have become a benchmark for such things, and every successive album has indicated that McBain's ambitions extend beyond ticking genre boxes and fulfilling predestined requirements. A grotesque and free-spirited infantry charge through his home nation's myths, legends, folklore and bloody battles, "Coronach" is Scottish to the core, and a noisily enigmatic conceptual splurge to match the boldness and bravery of its creator's objectives. As ever, McBain has performed and recorded the whole thing himself, which ensures that HELLRIPPER has an unwavering musical core that lends itself endlessly to evoking frostbitten and feral atmospheres, while also showcasing the increasingly progressive and ingenious nature of the Aberdeen-based musician's songwriting. In terms of a holistic heavy metal experience, "Coronach" is a flawless endeavor.

Convincing from the start, HELLRIPPER have turned gritty and gruesome blackthrash into a refined art form. Even back on debut album "Coagulating Darkness" (2017),McBain was operating on a significantly higher level than most of his grubby, underground peers, but the evolution that his band has undergone in the years since has been nothing short of breathtaking. Increasingly in demand as a monstrous live act, HELLRIPPER have grown so much that "Coronach" can be viewed as a powerful heavy metal statement, free from the limitations of subgenre myopia. It will still rip your goddamn face off, of course, and there are several songs that maintain the abrupt violence of earlier releases, but the real story here is that McBain's wild imagination has taken over.

It certainly helps that these songs tell stories that eschew the usual blackthrash clichés in favor of sincere and subversive flights of historical fancy and enhanced reality: from the barbaric, ghoulish deeds of "Hunderprest" — which tells of an evil, vampire priest who hunted his prey on horseback, accompanied by a pack of feral hounds — to the austere grandeur of the title track, which takes its name from a vocal lament often sung at Scottish funerals. But beyond the concept and the fabulous artwork that adorns the sleeve, "Coronach" is also a thrilling, musical rollercoaster ride, with subtlety and complexity woven into its vicious, fast-as-fuck fabric. With a dizzying array of ideas on display, songs like "Kinchyle (Goat and Granite)" and the magnificently titled "Blakk Satanic Fvkkstorm" have depth and substance in abundance, not to mention fiendishly inventive nods to everyone from ROTTING CHRIST and WATAIN, to OPETH and MERCYFUL FATE.

Two songs, in particular, stand out as evidence of HELLRIPPER's mastery. "Baobhan Sith (Waltz of the Damned)" is a very fine piece of heavy metal songwriting, delivered at an insane speed but with its intricacies and deviance on full display. With bewildering tempo changes and an arrangement that brings melodic opulence and old-school grandeur together in a shower of broadsword sparks, it is obnoxiously exciting. Similarly, "Coronach" itself takes a widescreen approach to dirty thrash, with powerful clean(ish) vocals and an epic core of mist-shrouded atmosphere and ragged melancholy that is weirdly affecting and as uplifting and triumphant as IRON MAIDEN at their mid-'80s peak. Are HELLRIPPER Scotland's greatest ever metal band? Yes. Yes they are. Hail the goat!