Old Mother Hell
s/t

Hellish name they have selected this German trio who released this self titled debut effort on their own last year and this year it comes on Cruz del Sur Music on digipak and vinyl. I can’t say that it looks very exciting, it looks like something out of a doom catalogue of times long gone. But we all know better than to judge a book by its cover and I have allowed this album sin in my stereo for a while now and I can say that the cover very much reflects what we get to hear from this album that sports six tracks and a very sensible playing time.

Ever-present is the desire to make music of the masters or music that has been inspiring or whatever – music you like to hear, and that is very obvious here as well. Old Mother Hell never seems like they look for something of their own, they seem content to make music akin to their heroes. Classic powerful hard rock with a large portion of doom, bands like the three similar come to mind but many more as well. Think of bands like Black Sabbath or Candlemass but with less distinctive vocal presence. The production is good, there is power and there is room for melodies as well and the variation over the tracks is good without ever falling outside the framework. And it is certainly short enough, some might call it an EP but it is well over 30 minutes long so I say that album is the right description.

Likeable, familiar, a nostalgic journey through music; I think those very well describe how I look at this album. The songs are good and I have found it quite a pleasant thing to listen to this album. The third track Narcotic Overthrow is probably the best one of the album, and then I have to also mention the ending title track that I think makes a great punctuation to a good album. But, I also have to voice a small reservation as they aren’t exactly offering anything we haven’t heard before, and as a critic I have to view that as a slight negative as the album risks the fate of millions of other albums; to appear irrelevant as there are the legends and then those that makes it even better and then there are those who make it good and those are numerous meaning that many good albums will drown in all the noise of similar music.

Lastly I can only point out that if you like the similar bands and bands similar to those and your greatest fear is that things will change, if that is true for you then you have a great album here. I think that Old Mother Hell has put together a very fine debut album and those who discover it will most likely find it a pleasing album with good songs.

HHHHHHH