RAISE HELL
“WRITTEN IN BLOOD”
Album Review By Iron Mathew

9/10

Raise Hell are a thrash metal band from Sweden formed in 1996 who have released four albums and one E.P. to date, and as their twenty year anniversary approaches, Raise Hell are set to unleash their fifth album ‘Written In Blood’.

Thunderous and full of pace, ‘Dr. Death’ opens the album in blistering style, with gravel edged gruff vocals and a razor sharp guitar sound. This is mosh pit metal at its best. The rhythm is relentless, your head is banging non stop and your fist will be punching the air in delight. ‘Six Feet Under’ is fast, frenetic and so heavy that it may just pound you “six feet under” (the ground). The guitar riffing is superb, the breakdowns are the stuff of a mosh pit stomp and at only two songs in, you find yourself yelling “more, I want more”. And more you get in the shape of the thunderous, chugging ‘Fallen Domination’. The vocals are menacing, the guitars are heavy and the song bludgeons its way past as it stomps all over you.

Intense and very much in your face, the album moves on at pace, forcing its infectiousness on you in the form of ‘Demon Mind’. Brutal riffing, yet with a (surprisingly) melodic chorus, ‘Demon Mind’ is hard, heavy and raw. ‘A Blackened Resurrection’ slows the pace to mid tempo, but retains the heavy stomp and the gravel edged vocals as it smacks you around the head. Acoustic guitar sounds on a thrash metal album might sound way out of place, but they don’t last long at all as ‘The Bell Of The Reaper’ comes at you like a runaway JCB, smashing everything out of its way as it brutally tears up a path of destruction. Raw riffing, screaming guitar solo, and powerful vocals will have you banging your head hard in exuberance.

Letting loose with frenetic chaos is the venomous ‘We Arise’, all machine gun riffing and pounding drums, it is thrash metal at its most raw and brutal. With probably the gruffest vocal display on the album ‘We Arise’ is not for the faint hearted as it rockets past you in a blur. ‘Thank You God’ is brutal, intense and very much in your face while ‘In Cold Blood’ is menacing, pulsating and has the heaviest, most brutal sounding chug on the album, not to mention the blistering, screaming guitar solo. At over six minutes in length, ‘Final Hour’ is far and away the longest song on offer here and ends the album in a blast of raw, brutal riffing, and a chance to foot stomp your way round in circles, punching your fist in the air in delight, relishing the moment you can listen to the album all over again, and again and again . . .

Overall, brutal and raw thrash metal that is frenetic and raucous and will definitely have the mosh pit furiously foot stomping and head banging.

‘Written In Blood’ will be released on 21st August 2015 via Black Lodge Records.

TRACKLIST

Dr Death
Six Feet Under
Fallen Domination
Demon Mind
A Blackened Resurrection
The Bell of The Reaper
We Arise
Thank You God
In Cold Blood
Final Hour

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