Hells Headbangers Records

Acid Witch – Midnight Movies EP Review

Acid Witch – Midnight Movies EP Review

“Just in time for April Fool’s Day, here’s a real cluster-fook of a concept EP. Let me paint the picture for you. Imagine a campy early 70s horror movie about hormonally challenged teeny boppers at the drive-in on a Saturday night. That’s the night of the horror movie marathon hosted by the cheesy local rock station and their creepy radio personality. Oh, there’s also a satanic cult and a sex-obsessed serial killer lurking around, and for reasons beyond me, a early 80s hair metal band is playing. Good times are sure to be had before the axe falls, and that axe belongs to Acid Witch, the stoner doom/death act with tongue planted firmly in cheek.” Hockey masks, butcher knives and double edge axes – these are a few of my favorite things. Now die.

Abominator – Evil Proclaimed Review

Abominator – Evil Proclaimed Review

“Satan-hailing, long-standing Aussies Abominator are back after nine years of hiatus with yet another record of their signature blackened death (or deathened black?) metal. If you’ve listened to any of the band’s previous releases, it won’t come as much of a surprise that their fifth full-length Evil Proclaimed shows no shifts in pace, attitude, or sound.” The Motorhead of Sodom clones? I’m in!

Perdition Temple – The Tempter’s Victorious Review

Perdition Temple – The Tempter’s Victorious Review

“Oh, how things have changed. Back in the Unchain the Underground days we used to get physical copies of releases. When I first started it as a print ‘zine in 1988, before some of my fellow staphers here at AMG were alive, it was a cassette and onesheet, then CDs. The digital copies just started to creep in towards the end of UtU existing as a web site.” Some things change, some don’t. Like the smell of a good angel corpse, for instance.

Dwell – Vermin and Ashes Review

Dwell – Vermin and Ashes Review

“Doom/death is a genre that’s really gotten under my skin over the past few years. And it seems to have left some kind of egg or parasitic hanger on, since I hunger for it more and more. That however, comes with a big caveat: it must be utterly doused in mood and atmosphere or be so insanely heavy it causes sinkholes.” Can a band made up of members from another doom/death band meet this stringent criteria?

Execration – Morbid Dimensions Review

Execration – Morbid Dimensions Review

“Execration appears to be quite the popular name for death metal bands, so I’ll begin with a clarification: this review concerns the Norwegian death metal band Execration – not the Italian death metal band Execration or the Colorado death metal band Execration (who themselves are not to be confused with defunct Michigan death metal band Execration, nor with disbanded Arizona death metal band Execration).” Eh, what’s in a name anyway?

Sacrocurse – Unholier Master Review

Sacrocurse – Unholier Master Review

“Following a stint on highly respected underground metal label Iron Bonehead productions for the release of their Sulphur Blessing demo, Mexican/Turkish duo Sacrocurse have fittingly landed on the Hells Headbangers roster for their debut full length, entitled Unholier Master. Band members LZ (drums) and Zolrak Montes (guitars, vocals), the latter a member of long running Texan act Nodens, craft a suitably primal slab of bestial blackened death, wielding their respective instruments like crude and primitive weapons of war as they hack and hammer through ten violent cuts in an appropriately concise 32-minute running time.” Metal Rule #346: You aren’t extreme unless you have “sacro” in your band name. New probationary scribe L. Saunders reports on how the proper prefix helped these Mexican metallers in their quest for brutal conquest.

Force of Darkness – Absolute Verb of Chaos and Darkness Review

Force of Darkness – Absolute Verb of Chaos and Darkness Review

“With spikes, skulls and Sarcophago as my top 3 interests on ChristianMingle.com, I was surprised I hadn’t already heard of Force of Darkness. Formed in 2002, this Chilean trio released a self-titled debut in 2006 and a second LP Darkness Revelation in 2010. I was somewhat familiar with bassist/vocalist Nabucodonosor III’s other band Hades Archer, whom I had discovered via the standard method of searching for naughty words on metal-archives.org, thus stumbling on their 2008 EP Penis Metal. As EPs go it was fairly average in both length and quality.” Two things we love at AMG are penis jokes and bad ESL album titles. Enjoy of deep verb.

Children of Technology – Future Decay Review

Children of Technology – Future Decay Review

“There comes a time in your life when you have to say to yourself, “Self, what’s wrong with you? Sure, you have responsibilities… obligations, even. What would happen if you were to just, I dunno, shut your brain off for a little wild and just go happily apeshit? You know… legally, of course. You have to be at work in the morning and your significant other will be pissed if he/she has to pick you up in jail at 4 am.” Italy’s Children of Technology pretty much have your soundtrack ready for you with Future Decay.” Release the Moshkenstein!

Midnight – No Mercy for Mayhem Review

Midnight – No Mercy for Mayhem Review

“Punk and black/death metal are closer brethren than one might think. Obviously, punk’s influence on metal is undeniable, but when a band like Cleveland’s Midnight comes along and seamlessly mashes both styles together, it becomes even more evident how the different genres are all branches of the same tree. There are also some strong elements of NWOBHM, thrash, crust… I can go on and on, but what Midnight really hammers home is that when you throw them into a big pile, light it on fire, and piss on it, besides that horrible acrid cloud of pissmist, you get what can best be described as rock and roll.” This album has charisma AND pissmist. You can’t beat that for a dollar!

Cemetery Lust – Orgies of Abomination Review

Cemetery Lust – Orgies of Abomination Review

“Oh deary me, Cemetery Lust calls their style of metal “Rape Thrash.” That should tell you all you need to know about these rancid bastards. If it didn’t, this is extremely low rent, low-fi, vaguely blackened crust thrash in the vein of Inferno with copious nods to Whiplash, Autopsy and Sacrofago and it is NOT pretty or PC. At all. If such a thing as a musical cliché warehouse existed, these guys looted the Neanderthal Thrash section of everything that wasn’t nailed down and then nailed down the security guard just to be cvlt.” Well, this sure is a shit show of a listen.