Review by Sonny for Hellfekted - Woe to the Kingdom of Blood (2020)

Hellfekted are a three-piece from my home town, Stoke-on-Trent, in the UK and ply their trade in the area of aggressive blackened thrash. This is a style that has reinvigorated the thrash scene in recent years with, in particular, a number of very good bands and releases coming from Latin America and especially from Chile. So anyway, Woe to the Kingdom of Blood is Hellfekted's debut album and is one of the few blackened thrash albums to hail from the UK, Craven Idol being the only other real exponent of the style I am familiar with that hail from these shores.

Firstly, I've got to say, that cover is horrible but to be fair keeps well within the thrash aesthetic. The second problem I have is that there is something not quite right with the production. I have no technical knowledge of music production but the top end just doesn't sound right to me as if it's clipped or too compressed and the guitar tone and the cymbals seem to suffer markedly as a result. That said, the bottom end is great and Chris Brownrigg's bass in particular benefits from this, it's growling, crunchy rhythms often dominating proceedings. It is an exceedingly aggressive-sounding album, with a breakneck tempo for most of it's runtime and Liam Stubbs' savage and ragged black metal-styled vocals which sound like they are shredding his vocal chords to ribbons with sheer spite and hatred. I would like to have heard a few more solos as they are in fairly short supply here, although soloing don't seem to be Liam Stubbs' strong point - the one during Fractured for example is quite poor, the extended one during Omen of the Antichrist is a little better but is still subpar when compared to the thrash masters.  There are, however, riffs aplenty and pretty good ones they are too in the main. Hellfekted sound better the faster they play and aren't quite as convincing when they throttle the tempo back, such as on the title track where they just sound a bit off.

Overall I would say it's a decent, albeit flawed, slab of blackened thrash with two or three really good tracks such as Tower of Life, Stigma (DSBMthrash?) and Fire at Will that doesn't rival the leaders in the genre, but is still solid enough to warrant the occasional spin. I will look out for the follow-up with great anticipation and hope that they can iron out their technical issues and produce a blackthrash album good enough to put the UK back on the thrash metal map!