Having covered some banging Scottish metal from the past couple of years on Critical Madness, it’s about time for something fresh. Just a fortnight ago, blackened speed one-man-band Hellripper released their sophomore LP - The Affair of the Poisons. The man behind the metal, James McBain, has been busy releasing music every year since Hellripper’s invocation in 2014, and the hard work has paid off. Having signed with Peaceville for the new album, it’s exciting to see the band growing. Now lets don those leathers and bullets and get thrashing!
The titular number opens The Affair of the Poisons with a nasty barked “UH!” in traditional black-thrash fashion which never goes out of style. The intro riff crawls into the high-speed hell that will get the head banging as soon as the beat kicks in. The riffs are catchy and screaming with old-skool vibes giving equal parts 80’s speed/thrash and early 90’s black metal making for an overall killer opening. Follow-up “Spectres of the Blood Moon Sabbath” drops the tempo down a touch for pounding crusty d-beats with a cool bluesy riff peppered throughout before “Vampire’s Grave” ups the pulse-pounding NWOBHM vibes. Marking the halfway point of the album is “Beyond the Convent Walls”, opting for a more straight-up thrash approach, with non-stop sliding power chords and a barely relenting pace. The ending of the mid section brings a harmonised idea giving a little melodic flavour which stands out amongst the thrashing.
These concepts continue throughout The Affair of the Poisons. “Savage Blasphemy” and “Hexennacht” keep up the in-your-face thrashing with plenty of punky moments and killer legato legato licks and old-skool ideas in both. Penultimate number “Blood Orgy of the She-Devils” is a final blast of upbeat d-beat punk soundtracking it’s B-movie horror, with another awesome flash of melody among the power chords. The latter track may be the final blast of upbeat punk but album closer “The Hanging Tree” ups the crust to the max. Opening with some mid-paced discordant chord bashing, the song burst into a final four-minute shriekfest of blackened punk ending in a deathly 6/8 swing before the final clean outro riff.
Overall the music is straight-up signature Hellripper. They’ve mastered their own sound within the blackened-speed/thrash subgenre crafted from the best of the nastier side of both NWOBHM and thrash circa 1981-85, brought screaming into 2020. The production is more crisp than in previous efforts (see debut LP Coagulating Darkness and the early material compilation Complete and Total Fucking Mayhem for more!), nailing that old-skool scratchy guitar tone but with cleaner and more pronounced drums. McBain’s vocals also sound particularly cavernous with each reverb and delay-laden demonic bark and shriek. The music doesn’t reinvent any wheels but it doesn’t need to. It’s high-speed, dripping in the blood of the old-skool and an all round catchy affair. The Affair of the Poisons is a solid rip-roaring half hour of heavy headbanging fun, and who wants to argue against more fun? Critical Hits: "The Affair of the Poisons", "Spectres of the Blood Moon Sabbath", "Vampire's Grave", Savage Blasphemy", and "Blood Orgy of the She-Devils"
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