Honorable Mentions from the Abyss #28: From Hell/Kaw/Soul Collector/Reanimator

Hey brutal bangers,

after the first digital pack from VladPromotion, the following bands are other ones I received always from this Polish promoter. This time the selection is more various because, as you'll see soon, it ranges from punk rock'n'roll to horror metal... and to the usual thrash metal madness that's typical for Vlad.

No words are necessary, so go already to the action and enjoy this new appointment with "Honorable Mentions from the Abyss"!

FROM HELL - "RATS AND RAVENS"

After 6 years of discographic silence, here you are the comeback of the San Francisco-based band From Hell (FB page) with their second album "Rats and Ravens". Founded in 2010, they are a quartet formed by veterans playing in the past in bands of the calibre of Testament, Vicious Rumours, Les Claypool and others, and, for a while, they had into their line-up even Paul Bostaph, now into Slayer. From Hell have the curious feature to be specialized on concept-albums, so both "Ascent From Hell" and "Rats and Ravens" are horror stories. This has a lot of sense if you think that Aleister Sinn, their singer and founder, was into Grandma, a tribute band of King Diamond, that, as you know, is literally obsessed with the horror stories.

Self-released in March of 2020, "Rats and Ravens" tells essentially the story about a witch sacrificing all the children of an Eastern European village during the 13th century, so to reanimate the dead. Musically, this story sees an interesting and not so common mixture between death metal, thrash metal, doom metal, raven-like black metal screams, and all this is played not only especially in mid-tempo but also through a creepy and horror atmosphere, even thanks to the presence of occasional keyboards. In addition, every track is connected in every sense since their intros are usually the continuation of the outros of the previous tracks. Strong of numbers like "The Witch" (that contains some theatrical clean vocals), the doom metal-oriented "Don't Cry for Help", the ritualistic "Three and Nine", the gothic and decadent "Forest of the Screaming Trees" and of the 8-minute tour de force "Body Rats", "Rats and Ravens", that the band promoted with the video of "They Come at Night", shows a peculiar style that seems to be the extreme horror metal version of Mercyful Fate/King Diamond.

KAW - "HANGIN' ON A WIRE"

I remember that the lockdown, despite everything, was a great moment of creativity with the people that made do with a lot of imagination, also doing something totally new for them. These Kaw (FB page), from the proto-punk land of Detroit, Michigan (MC5, The Stooges, anyone?), are no exceptions to this atmosphere since their debut album "Hangin' on a Wire" was self-released just during the lockdown, exactly in May 2020. Formed in 2018 by the will of the ex-Zeke Kyle Whitefoot, the intentions of this quartet were to give life to a style whose main influences are ancient bands such as Black Sabbath, Kiss, Motörhead, Tank and The Stooges (indeed!). And so it is!

In fact, "Hangin' on a Wire" is an intense 26-minute album whose 10 tracks spew forth a raw, filthy'n'sleazy combination between rock'n'roll, heavy metal and (hardcore) punk. So, expect nothing really imaginative nor various but, anyway, the band leaves its mark with vivacious rock'n'roll numbers like "Run Free", speed metalpunk explosions like the titletrack... and there is even a perverse ballad called "Evil Love"! All this is completed by unchained guitar solos here and there, and by the possessed and very punk-oriented vocals of Kyle, this time better known as Kal Kutta. Now what more do you want?

SOUL COLLECTOR/REANIMATOR - "IN UNION WE THRASH"

Well, if you want more, I think I have something very fit for you: "In Union We Thrash". It is a split album released in 2016 by a Polish label that here we know very well, Defense Records, and it sees 10 tracks divided between Soul Collector (from Poland) and Reanimator (from Canada). And what is the style they express with big conviction in this release?

Needless to say, it's THRASH, THRASH and FUCKIN' THRASH TILL DEATH! So, the split starts with Soul Collector (so named probably after the Destruction's song), that begin their 4-track side with the horror intro "It is Time". After that, you will be destroyed by "The Pledge" (that has a short moment recovering the horror tunes of the intro), the headbanging attack but in a more rockish speed metal way à la Baphomet's Blood "Never Enough" (having an awesome guitar solo with neoclassical influences) and the 8-minute track à la Metallica "1968" (full of powerful mid-tempos). So, Soul Collector are old-school thrash metal but played with a lot of imagination and unpredictability and with amazing and technical guitar solos. Very different and simpler (but always in an US style) is the sound of Reanimator (FB page): straight-in-your-face thrash metal with very aggressive vocals, unchained riffs and a headbanging attack from start to finish, especially in songs whose titles are whole programs like "The Mosh Master" (that has some hardcore punk hooks) and "Rush for the Mosh". No experimentations (except for a somehow psychedelic passage in "The Abominautor"), the 6 songs by Reanimator beat and beat again without mercy the "poor" ears of the listeners! Overall, both the bands are good but I prefer Soul Collector (FB page) because of their creativity and for their guitarwork.