Review | HELL ‘Human Remains’
Human Remains
As I place the ‘Human Remains‘ disc into my player and slip on my headphones, I am overwhelmed with a strange feeling of fear and excitement. As I hit play I am immediately whisked off to another dimension, descending into a foreboding and ominous place called HELL. As I arrive at my destination, I am greeted by an orchestra playing ‘Overture: Themes From Deathsquad‘ accompanied by a ghoulish choir. “This is strange” I think to myself “I never thought HELL would sound like this.” Suddenly from behind a wall of flames appears the house band, Satan’s house band, hand picked by the devil himself, aptly named HELL. They break into a monster opening riff and begin to play an overture of their own leading into the song ‘On Earth As It Is In Hell‘ I am blown away. It’s obvious I am in the presence of greatness. The band is fronted by a madman who begins to deliver a performance unlike anything I have heard before. I am now thinking “Ozzy may have given us the ‘Devil’s Daughter‘ but HELL has unleashed ‘Satan’s Son‘ upon us in the form of David Bower.” I didn’t think of him as a vocalist or singer but as a man possessed, performing deep from within his soul. His tongue rolling accents are classic, I was mesmerized. After a blistering rendition of ‘On Earth As It Is In Hell‘ the band disappears and I find myself standing on a cobblestone road.
The air is damp and thick, the night sky aglow from the flames burning down London off in the distance. A mother agonizes as her baby cries while a horse drawn hearse slowly passes by. A ghostly apparition of HELL co-founder, guitarist and vocalist Dave Halliday who committed suicide in the 80’s slowly trudges along, ringing a hand bell as he calls out to the locals “Bring out your dead, bring out your dead“. HELL appears and blasts into ‘Plague and Fyre‘ celebrating Satan’s master plan to destroy the English with the Bubonic Plaque in 1665 followed by the great fire of 1666 almost destroying London. HELL’s songs are strangely refreshing even though their topics are of the darkest nature. Lead by insanely dramatic, theatrical vocals, crunchy thick guitar riffs complemented by a thunderous rhythm section, HELL is on fire, I love this band! I wonder aloud, “Am really in Hell or is this Heaven”?
I am quickly reminded of exactly where I am as scorching flames reach high into the air and the tune ends with a voice screaming out “Burning down, down…down” I hear a strange alien like sound and the band tears into a kind of head banging foot stomping song called ‘The Oppressors.’ As the song shifts gears into a heavy metal bog the incredible musicianship of guitarist Kev Bower and Andy Sneap is evident as they share riffs and trade solo’s between themselves. The song slows to a sludgy drone as a bell tolls and the keyboards played by Kevin Bower adds an airy atmosphere along with the maniacal laughter of brother David as he pitifully pleads for mercy on his blackened soul from Satan, the mentor of his destiny.
HELL explodes into ‘Blasphemy And The Master‘ a song warning those who contemplate selling their soul to the Prince of Darkness should reconsider as they will regret it for eternity. These guys are relentless, my head is spinning from the exhausting yet exhilarating thrill ride of non stop metal music of the highest quality. As this dark tale of eternal damnation slows down, a Gothic choir sings as a helpless soul pleads “No, no, no” the band rips into a smokin’ solo section. You can hear what sounds like Satan himself speaking in the background. This song ROCKS! It again slows to a crawl with the tolling of a bell and insane laughter which lulls me into a trance like state.
Barely able to catch my breath, HELL hits me right between the eyes with “Let Battle Commence” a blistering song played at breakneck speed. This song screams to be a show opener “Hello, good evening, welcome to the show, there’s some information that we think you should know. We’re intent on inciting you, bent on exciting you, let the battle commence.” Drummer Tim Bowler shines on this rocker with precision drumming using his instrument like a lethal weapon. I am in the midst of a frenzy of creative, intense songs with nontraditional structures and arraignments that never lack hard hitting power or energy.
As I am “Welcomed to HELL” I find myself surrounded by an army of soldiers on foot and horseback prepared to defend all that is good and right against the Devil’s evil forces. As a soothing, dramatic synthesizer fails to calm the troops a tympani drum and gong announces their leader as he speaks and pledges his allegiance to slay the beast and destroy “The Devils Deadly Weapon.” A female voice from the heavens above sounds off as HELL breaks into this epic battle anthem. Leading the soldiers on their march to their ultimate demise fighting the good fight against loosing odds. This is a complex tune with numerous twists and turns featuring the synthesizer, giving it a full rich sound. This battle rages within us all everyday, it’s the war between good and evil, right and wrong and you decide who wins.
As Satan returns from his victorious battle defeating the doomed army, he is briefly distracted and the forces of good prevail as HELL uncharacteristically begins to play an upbeat song of hope and dreams coming true called ‘The Quest.’ This is a more straight forward jam with a killer driving riff and awesome dual guitars. Bassist Tony Speakman and drummer Tim Bowler rock the house on this one.
Annoyed, Satan regains control and I find myself walking through a gloomy, dead forest with the sound of bagpipes playing eerily off in the distance. As a bone chilling wind passes through me a Raven calls out and I follow it deeper into the forest. I hear evil sounds up ahead and soon come upon a cloven of three hideous witches. They are chanting some sort of incantations that I can’t quite make out while stirring their enormous cauldron. I cautiously approach, and as I draw near they scream out ‘Macbeth‘ which HELL begins to play. It’s their tribute to Shakespeare’s play about the doomed Scottish ruler. Although Shakespeare’s play (which some say is cursed) did not depict Macbeth (also known as ‘The Red King’) accurately, the band plays on. Midway through the song the bagpipes join in adding a Scottish flare to the tune, after all Macbeth was the king of Scotland. You tricky lads.
I am suddenly transported to a deserted church with voices coming at me from different points in this cold, darkened cathedral as a keyboard plays demonic notes. The voices are quoting news stories based on the atrocities of sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests against children. HELL begins to play ‘Save Us From Those Who Would Save Us‘ a fast paced song reflecting the bands rebellious and irreverent take on the audacity of “self appointed guardians no better than me or you.” As the song ends I find myself drifting through a mystical Middle Eastern vibe that leads me towards the end of my epic journey. HELL commences to play a slow, grinding heavy riff that opens the song ‘No Martyrs Cage‘ about the plight of political prisoners. Asking the question “Is this fantasy or just insanity.” It maintains an Eastern feel throughout with moments of hammer like riffs. Building into a heavy crescendo that fades out to a light keyboard as Bower delivers his final passage,
“In a world devoid of divinity only the Human Remains.”
I am woken by a loud blast. Heart racing, breathing heavily, I find myself lying in sweat soaked sheets. As I regain control of my thoughts, I realize that I have just experienced one of the most amazing works of heavy metal music ever. This is metal theater for the mind straight from the heart of HELL. ‘Human Remains‘ is a powerful, vivid masterpiece of modern day Heavy Metal classic’s.
Do yourself a favor, buy this record, find a dark room, put on your headphones and prepare to enter a realm of metal music of unparalleled power and emotion. Be prepared to enter the world of HELL!
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars (This is an instant Heavy Metal Classic!)
Favorite Track (At the moment): The Devil’s Deadly Weapon
Human Remains track listing.
01. Overture: Themes From Deathsquad
02. On Earth As It Is In Hell
03. Plague and Fyre
04. The Oppressors
05. Blasphemy & The Master
06. Let Battle Commence
07. The Devil’s Deadly Weapon
08. The Quest
09. Macbeth
10. Save Us From Those Who Would Save Us
11. No Martyrs Cage
HELL are:
David Bower – Vocals
Kevin Bower – Guitar/Keyboards
Andy Sneap – Guitar/Producer/Genius
Tony Speakman – Bass
Tim Bowler – Drums
5 Responses to “Review | HELL ‘Human Remains’”
Leave a Reply
Its just brilliant. Such a refreshing change to the troll vocals of today’s metelcore. They were supperb at Bloodstock – complete entertainment.
They are 80’s metal – that’s kind of the point – but hey do it so well
Jeez. I’d like to hear what great Metal bands those two guys have heard. They must be a God-send or a Hell-spawn to make Hell “second-rate Metal”.
Some people.
Just sounds like 80’s second-rate metal to me. Competently played, but nothing memorable there.
Yeah Uhmmm….The music takes me back to the 80’s but everything else just kinda falls kinda flat for me….Maybe it’s my mood today because of the crappy weather , but it just doesn’t do it for me…