SPIRITWORLD

As concepts go, SPIRITWORLD's is rock solid. "Helldorado" is the Las Vegas crew's third album, and the most potent demonstration yet of their unique blend of brutish thrash and sun-scorched Americana. Two previous albums laid down the template, and while it was definitely the case that creative mastermind Stu Folsom was building something highly original and very cool, neither "Pagan Rhythms" (2020) nor "Deathwestern" (2022) took his ideas far enough. Instead, SPIRITWORLD established the ferocity of their sound, with only occasional detours into the world of the smoldering tumbleweed hoedowns that both imagery and demeanor had promised. This time, the game is truly on. "Helldorado" may share its title with an old W.A.S.P. album, but that is where the connection to any kind of metal tradition ends, and the full weight of Folsom's macabre vision is brought to life. An ostensible concept piece detailing the discovery of a portal to Hell in rural Mexico, and the unholy chaos that erupts from it, this is the full realization of that original, brilliant idea.

It might seem counterintuitive for metal fans to demand more country music but therein lies the key to "Helldorado" and its irresistibly oddball nature. Folsom has retained his knack for penning vicious, thugged-out thrashcore bangers, and the likes of "No Vacancy In Heaven" and "Prayer Lips" are arguably the most aggressive and intense things SPIRITWORLD have released to date. But from the sun-scorched, dustbowl destruction of the opening "Abilene Grime" onwards, this is the rollercoaster ride that Folsom has been promising all along. Unlike its two predecessors, "Helldorado" does not operate as a companion piece to Folsom's "Godlessness" novel: instead, these turbulent tales pick up where that story ended, recounting what happens next in the frontman's meticulous narrative brain. Plainly thinking in both musical and visual terms, he has made the third SPIRITWORLD album a much more nuanced and texturally intriguing piece of work, albeit interspersed with some of the gnarliest metal in town. Country, folk and even bluegrass elements find their way into these songs, sometimes to the exclusion of thrash riffs, and the whole dusty enterprise has a neat spaghetti western vibe that even seems to infect its heavier moments. There are shit-kicking roots rock riots ("Bird Song of Death"),wildly atmospheric post-metal dirges ("Cleansing"),and in recent single "Abilene Grime", the thrashcore equivalent of a saloon bar brawl. Elsewhere, SPIRITWORLD have become ever more adept at repurposing thrash for their own agenda. In particular, "Stigmata Scars" is a monstrous creation: grim, brutal and drenched in tobacco spit, its blend of old-school spirit and explosive, grubby-fingered metal is genuinely exciting. In contrast, the closing "Annihilism" is a pleasing melee of breezy acoustic guitars and yee-haw hooks, with an anthemic, misty-eyed core and a trippy coda that abruptly vanishes into thin air, which may or may not be emblematic of Hell's gates opening up and swallowing the story's protagonists whole, but certainly sounds that way.

SPIRITWORLD are playing the long game, steadily evolving and becoming more intriguing as they trundle along. "Helldorado" is by far their strongest album to date, and the first time Folsom's "Death Western" shtick has been seen through to its logical, wildly entertaining conclusion. Prepare for a scalping.