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HELLCRASH
Inferno Crematörio

Dying Victims Productions (2025)
Rating: 7/10

There’s never been any messing with Italy’s Hellcrash, the trio just leap straight from the frying pan into the fire with their brand of Satan metal. Choking on the fumes created aeons ago by Venom and the likes, Hellcrash continues to buddy up to Lucifer by plying their audience with lashings of alcoholic speed.

Only approach this album if you’re looking for fun as Hellcrash aren’t exactly here to tap into your grey matter. Instead, expect some junk draw black fury soaked in beer as ‘Sword Of Baphomet’ and ‘Oathbreaker’ belch smoke in your direction. There’s a strong sulphuric waft of Bulldozer as this outing unravels from its oily coils. The breath of lead man L.C. Hellraiser is stained with nicotine and rusty blood as this team of ravenous orcs plumb the depths of satanic savagery.

Of course, this is very much cartoon culture driven by its own diesel grime, billowing great plumes of gritty smoke which in turn are swatted by the demonic axe work. If you’ve heard the title track and seen the accompanying promo video then you’ll know exactly what Hellcrash is all about: chains, leather, fire and a bastardisation of the familiar Motörhead, Venom and Bathory sound.

It’s easy to mock the generic nature but it’s also very easy to join Hellcrash in their fiery pit. ‘Mark Of The Beast’ brings fury and melody in equal measure before the rather epic ten-minute ‘Templar’s Curse’ spreads its black wings. Still not content with progression though, Hellcrash still manages to inject furious fires into a song that I thought they might struggle with due to its length. But no, ‘Templar’s Curse’ drips with atmospheric lyricism and snarling axe work circa Venom’s 1984 opus At War With Satan. Meanwhile, ‘Purgatory Raiders’ is smoking speed metal ripped from the halcyon days of fog and charred flesh, a time of primitive ranting and disagreeable mantras, all spawned from the boiling depths of Hades.

You know the score, the Devil wins again and all to the soundtrack of bubbling battery acid and creaking leather.

Neil Arnold

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