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Hellsaw – Trist


Recordlabel: Napalm Records
Releasedate: February 24th 2012

By Ingrid
They have existed for ten years, but they’ve been crawling out of the fields of the underground since only five years. Hellsaw is becoming a respected Black metal band. After touring with Inquisition, Shining; signing with Napalm Records; and creating a steady band line-up and playing on a lot of big festivals (including Wacken 2011), there can’t be many black metal fans that haven’t heard of Hellsaw yet! Their latest album Cold dates back to 2009, so it is about time that the Austrians come up with something new.

As soon as The Devil Is Calling My Name starts we are dragged into the black metal world. Fast black metal riffs are varied with almost doom like slower parts.
Doomed Pervades Nightmares surprised me; halfway during the song the raw black metal sound suddenly makes place for almost circus-like music (Hellsaw’s biggest nightmare is clowns?) From this plonking violin we continue to complicated music lines, bridges and rough black metal again during The Forerunner Of The Apocalypse.
What can’t be missed on the typical black metal album is the church choir singing something in Latin. And tadaaaa, guess how Death Bells starts…
With Trist, we travel deep into the heart of depressive black metal. The tempo slows down, Aries his vocals cry in despair, and the lyrics aren’t exactly the most happy ones out there either..

When listening to Silence, I can understand why Hellsaw toured with Shining. There are a lot of similarities between the bands in this song, but Hellsaw stays true to their own sound.
This album contains everything a black metal album should have according to the checklist.
An ‘ugh’ every now and then, dark lyrics, the typical black metal riffs, some of doom and depression here and there, a bit of anti-Christianity, etc. Great craftsmanship when it comes to the guitar lines! The vocals of singer/ musician Aries could use a bit more of a darker twist every now and then, but still I can’t complain about it.

Rating: 73/100

Tracklist:

01. The Devil Is Calling My Name 5:22
02. Sorrow Is Horror 4:43
03. Doom Pervades Nightmares 6:34
04. The Forerunner Of The Apocalypse 4:39
05. Death Bells 3:03
06. Trist 3:58
07. A Winter Cold 4:15
08. Beldam.1450 3:47
09. Silence 6:56

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