{"id":50254,"date":"2016-10-14T00:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T00:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=50254"},"modified":"2016-12-01T18:14:02","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T18:14:02","slug":"album-review-hobbs-angel-of-death-heaven-bled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-hobbs-angel-of-death-heaven-bled\/","title":{"rendered":"HOBBS\u2019 ANGEL OF DEATH – Heaven Bled (2016) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOBBS\u2019 ANGEL OF DEATH
Heaven Bled<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nHells Headbangers (2016)<\/span>
Rating: 9.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Back in 1988 I saw an album cover that stuck with me forever. The band had the unusual moniker of Hobbs\u2019 Angel Of Death and depicted frontman Peter Hobbs clad in leather jacket and with a menacing look standing amid the flickering glow of hellish flames.<\/p>\n

This was the album art for Hobbs\u2019 Angel Of Death\u2019s debut self-titled opus; a raging thrash masterpiece. And yet in spite of such a masterful metal creation, it wouldn\u2019t be until 1995 that the band would re-emerge with Inheritance<\/em>. However, by that time the genre of heavy metal had begun to suffer as new trends enveloped the world, and those flames and leather of the 80s seemed an almost cringe worthy premise.<\/p>\n

Now, though, we\u2019ve come full circle to some extent and 2016 marks the full-length return of this enigmatic Australian band. Accompanied by three musicians who\u2019ve all joined over the last couple of years, the rather fiery Peter Hobbs has once again delivered a roasting hot lump of powerful hell metal that \u2013 in my opinion \u2013 matches 1988\u2019s sizzling debut for atmosphere and raging metal fury.<\/p>\n

Hobbs\u2019 Angel Of Death offer up an hour-long molten metal experience that now makes me realise just how generic the likes of Slayer<\/a> have become, because this is some utterly pure and energetic thrashing madness with devilish power metal and trad\u2019 metal overtones.<\/p>\n

First up, we have Peter Hobbs\u2019 aggressive snarl; something untainted by time and still as potent as ever. But when coupled with the feisty structures herein, the quartet has coughed up one of the finest releases of the year and an album with enough devilish and deadly ingredients to bring order to a genre decidedly lacking in passion.<\/p>\n

But these guys don\u2019t just stop at hungry heavy metal with thrashing sugar. Instead, they dabble with black metal forays as well as black thrash chaos; wayward soloing cavorts with colder structures and angular prowess. While in the next instance we have a melodic, steel gallop fused with a meaty, chugging trudge of evil. No wonder these guys have been hiding for over 20 years \u2013 Peter Hobbs has no doubt been in cohorts with the Devil in order to master another apocalyptic remedy for the digital age. <\/p>\n

We get beaten to death by 12 utterly brilliant tunes, kick-started off with the brutal, fast-paced anguish of \u2018Il mostro di Firenzi\u2019 which somehow fuses the icy menace of, say, Mayhem with Slayer, coupled with the deadly Teutonic invasion of Sodom and Destruction<\/a>. If this had emerged in the 80s it would have been deemed a ground-breaking slab of extreme metal hostility, and more so had it emerged in the latter part of the 90s when numerous black metal bands were experimenting with icier, dissonant strains. But there\u2019s still no denying it\u2019s utterly compelling thrash aggression.<\/p>\n

This continues with the hammering \u2018Walk My Path\u2019, complete with unexpected smatterings of traditional metal melody, the windswept valleys of \u2018Final Feast\u2019 with its atmospheric arctic intro and then manic destructive thrash charge, and the monstrous cacophony that is \u2018Drawn & Quartered\u2019; the band finding a strange pocket inside the deadly realms of Venom, Destruction, Celtic Frost, Bulldozer, old Voivod, Slayer and goodness knows what else.<\/p>\n

People continuously speak about veteran band\u2019s now trying to recreate that old school feel, but with Heaven Bled<\/em> it\u2019s as if Hobbs\u2019 haven\u2019t left 1988.; forget about 1995, this third opus from the combo is as devastating as anything you\u2019ll hear this side of the halcyon days of metal.<\/p>\n

Fizzing, wild solos, an orgy of clambering, tumbling drums and threads of bellowing, billowing bass and all headed by Peter Hobbs\u2019 gnarly, hellish tones means that tracks such as \u2018Suicide\u2019, \u2018Son Of God\u2019, \u2018Hypocrites\u2019 and the title track are pure fuckin\u2019 Armageddon when it comes to heavy metal expression. Find me a faster track than \u2018Son Of God\u2019 that has been released this side of 1991 and I\u2019ll hand over my soul. Hats off to Simon Wizen for some of the best leads I\u2019ve heard this side of Hell and Iago Bruchi\u2019s drums have enough bone and steel to manifest a monstrous wall of apocalyptic noise. <\/p>\n

With Heaven Bled<\/em> Hobbs\u2019 Angel Of Death have stolen 2016 from under our noses; crafting a cauldron of such intensity and belligerence that by the time you\u2019ve finished listening you\u2019ll have realised that this ungodly posse has in fact constructed a boring machine that has drilled itself back to 1988 and ripped up the rule book. Even the Devil is frightened of this one.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOBBS\u2019 ANGEL OF DEATHHeaven Bled Hells Headbangers (2016)Rating: 9.5\/10 Back in 1988 I saw an album cover that stuck with me forever. The band had the unusual moniker of Hobbs\u2019 Angel Of Death and depicted frontman Peter Hobbs clad in leather jacket and with a menacing look standing amid the flickering glow of hellish flames. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3210],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hobbs-angel-of-death"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50254"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50257,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50254\/revisions\/50257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}