What we have here is an incredible anomaly.

Originally a NWOBHM underground band, Hell encompassed everything that was this wondrous period of music. Formed in 1982 and never really getting past the demo stage (save for one single in ’83), Hell has been one of the bands that, with the right amount of promotion and underground push, may well have been atop the leader board with Angel Witch, Diamond Head, Witchfinder General or Tygers of Pan Tang. Instead, they seemingly fell to the cult areas of our psyches, but nearly 30-years later we’re finally treated to an album in Human Remains that more than makes up for lost time.

After the 1987 suicide of original vocalist Dave Halliday the band seemed to fall into the limbo stage of existence. When they were lucky enough to secure a label deal that fell through literally days later it seems that everything just fell apart for Hell, but better late than never, right? Hopping on board with the rest of the original line-up is legendary producer and Sabbat guitarist Andy Sneap as well as new vocalist David Bower. Bower’s style can be described as a perfect blend of Mercyful Fate-era King Diamond or Sanctuary-period Warrel Dane; he’s a tremendously strong singer than provides a perfect captain for this ship.

So…Human Remains. Well, I can say with the utmost authority and experience that this album is already a classic for the period, even if the original era is now left to metal historians and old-school enthusiasts. From the very first chords of “On Earth As it is in Hell” the classic British sound manages to encapsulate the formula to an amazingly accurate degree. These aren’t some oldsters hanging on to past influences and refusing to move forward; this is a band that is running away with its original vision and catapulting the past glories right into the face of the modern day banger. The entire musical gamut is run here and every nuance and/or device is implemented to a near-perfect plateau. The songs themselves are small chunks of the traditional metal form completely bent on the Satanic schematic and all the malevolence that entails. “The Devil’s Deadly Weapon”, for example, employs a generous relevance in terms of the darker side of the metal spectrum. While not grainy or unpolished enough to be coined ‘black metal’ the lyrical content alone make Hell’s long-awaited full-length a sure source of inspiration for future bands, this I can guarantee. 

The opening bagpipes of “Macbeth” are one of the more haunting intros I’ve heard in some time, not to mention the cackling laughing of what might well be witches, but don’t let that put you off thinking it’s some contrived, lame attempt to demonize the pending track. Everything fits and fits like an evil fingerless leather glove right into your throat. This entire album in one long steel assault from start to finish and to miss it might well revoke your metal credentials, and that’s a fact. Mayhem and Darkthrone have nothing on these guys, my friends. Other powerhouse songs are “Blasphemy and the Master”, “Let Battle Commence” and “No Martyr’s Cage”, which is slow as it gets and as mind-burrowing as one can hope.              

Of course any true metalhead knows full well what Andy Sneap is capable of in terms of both musical creation and production values; his work with one of my favorite bands in Nevermore is second-to-none. True to form and legend, Sneap finagles a typically ancient sound with all of the modern flair without benefit of overkill. One listen to “The Quest” and you can just hear early Maiden or Grim Reaper all over this, and the fact that Sneap is a genius is all a byproduct of the fact that this album is one of the strongest NWOBHM releases ever fashioned…some 30-years after the fact!
Hey, as I always say concerning our beloved movement: It doesn’t matter when you get there as long as you arrive. Hell took me up on it and created one of the better albums of the year so far. This is a surefire can’t-miss from these blacker-than-black gentlemen.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Overture: Themes from
     "Death Squad"
2.  On Earth as it is in Hell
3.  Plague and Fyre
4.  The Oppressors
      (Race Against Time cover)
5.  Blasphemy and the Master
6.  Let Battle Commence
7.  The Devil's Deadly Weapon
8.  The Quest
9.  Macbeth
10.  Save Us From Those
        Who Would Save Us
11.  No Martyr's Cage

Total playing time:  01:06:00

Release Date: May 13, 2011
Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Hell - Human Remains

Reviewer: Chris

May 11, 2011

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