Review Hellcrawler - Wastelands 2011

Sloven band called Hellcrawler comes with a prophecy of a devastated world, a time following an apocalyptic event probably triggered by facebook users thinking that if they all lay flat on the button that launches nuclear missiles they will be cool and get many so-called likes, facebook triggers such stupidity every day so I would not be surprised if that was the reason for the apocalypse. However, I do somehow doubt that Hellcrawler thinks of it that way, they are actually said to belong in these deserted wastelands and now they have come back in time in order to communicate in music how the world changed to allow us a chance to change that dramatic turn of events (note how I cleverly place a Dream Theater album title here without you even noticing).

I do however think that their musical way of promoting this is somewhat flawed since the vocal style of the hard and heavy rock’n’roll the band play, is almost impossible to make any sense of so you really don’t hear what he is on about. The brutal rock music this band sing to us is known for the vast majority of people in the world as Death’n’roll which was invented by Entombed according to some blog I read somewhere when looking for information about this band. This means that they play music as heavy and brutal as classical death metal with the same kind of harmonies we usually hear in rock’n’roll. The band has a dirty, some would say dirt cheap, production with a sound that might best be described as recorded from a pair of small earphones in an aluminium can. Somehow it seems as though the band has taken to heart what I always say, “less is more” as they give us no more than thirty minutes of music, this divided into ten tracks.

Immediately it is clear to me that this album has one major flaw, the sound is not good. It sounds as though it was bought at Ikea, Wall Mart or any of the other rubbish low price, low quality stores selling crap made by small children in china. I think this is unfortunate as they do have some interesting harmonies and some good feel to their songs but it is mostly cancelled out by the rubbish sound. I do think that track two Rattlesnake Tavern along with the title tracks are two tracks that are really good despite the child laboured production.

It is like the band was actually there in the rattlesnake tavern and performing the album for some mutilated people who happened to be there watching them. It was recorded by Werner Von Platen from Bremen in what was once germany (with a lower case G), he then played it from his small headphones inside a rusty can and that was recorded, and all of a sudden Wastelands was born. It is unfortunately what I think of when I hear this album, it is has a little too bad sound, the vocals are monotone, the songs are not varied enough for it to be anything more than okay. I do think that this is an okay album as there are some good stuff there and with a more modern production I think it would have been much, much better.

One have to say though that as I am badly allergic to bad sound I might be somewhat wrong in what I say, for those who enjoy albums and Ikea furniture this might be something to look into and the clever thing is that you can do that for free if you only follow the link to the band’s bandcamp site on the left you will find that you can download it there for free, you can also buy the album there and support the band as well.

In the end though I would have to say that I have no real desire to play this album and have already stopped, I just cannot quite stand the rusty can sound as it ruins my ears. I do however bring with me the two great songs called Rattlesnake Tavern and Wastelands, those are clear indications of more quality in this band, I hope to see it in the future.

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Hellcrawler Wastelands

Hellcrawler
Wastelands