Reviews list for Hell (USA) - Hell III (2012)

Hell III is basically a continuation of the misery and insantiy displayed on the beautifully diverse and highly consistent second album, which makes for a perfect aural transition of the fear of being sent to hell. This album is shorter, sweeter and more to the point at the expense of some of the extreme metal and more of the post-metal.

Hell III starts out similarly to the ending of the last album with the opener, "Mourn," kickstarting a heavily melodic post-metal tune before allowing the album to slowly emerge from a calm melancholy to pure sadness, and that's when a black metal melody of brutally heavy proportions, thanks in part to the production, massacred my ears. As the sadness developed into anger, the anger soon turned into the fuzziest doom metal in existence. Electric Wizard can fuck off. And as the rage slowly turns into a patient despair, the drone combines with the doom again to create a hellish atmosphere with occasional backing effects that sound occasionally like religious undertones such as a deep choir in the background. Eventually the drone turns into a tornado of howling winds and foghorns groaning into the cloudy night. These groans kickstart the third act, but the instrumentation of the drone aspects and the horrific vibes are top-notch. But it never allows itself to become too slow. Soon, the winds of despair bring back the acoustic melodies of the intro, bringing us back into a circle. It was too perfect.

The second half of the album, and the second track, "Decadere," continues where the first song left off, but with less melody and more despair, and decides to take a violin to the mix to help amplify the dronish aspects of the album. The post-metal/post-rock vibes continue for a while, calming the nerves after such a moodswing of a first half. I admit, I didn't expect the opening melody to just fade into nothingness before rising again, as if it was a different song entirely, but something about the fade-out brought me at ease, and I wasn't really disppointed when it started up again (although I was hoping for a blast of doom metal), but the way in which it was incorporated was brilliant, allowing it to mold right into the post-metal with some beautiful symphonic female singing being just audible enough to be enjoyed, barely struggling to match up with the incredible doom, and switching between that and the black metal vocals. When the drone finally kicks in, we've got more effects, better production and some samples of barely audible speeches in the background, all for the purpose of the apocalyptic atmosphere. This is the kind of thing Neurosis did for their album Through Silver in Blood. The sample goes on as we go back into the post-rock solos, but we as have slow symphonic sounds to upgrade the religious connections of the apocalyptic setting. And after that, we're back into the doomy sludge with another flawless transition, and as the black metal elements kick in again, the album reaches a level of musical and emotional heaviness that I'm not sure the world will ever see again. And somehow there was still five minutes left in this album? The black metal and doom metal work together to follow in the rhythmic footsteps of the post-rock solos and eventually quickly devolves into silence, leaving behind three minutes. And once again, an acoustic melody plays, this time to another barely audible sample which I can only imagine is someone talking about some sort of doomsday event, or disappointment at politicians or some crap like that. But the drone influences are still strong.

I honestly can't believe what I just heard. I can't believe someone actually made this. This is everything slower metal bands want to be, and M.S.W. made it look so fucking easy. The heaviness scratched the edge of the universe, and the genre-hopping was just as healthy on this album, and the melancholy and anger were perfectly expressed. In 37 minutes, M.S.W. took everythnig about his last album and slaughtered it. This and the previous album are perfect examples of what metal needs to be. This is only second to, well, the second Hell release.