Hell Militia - Last Station On The Road To Death
Hell Militia began in 2001 in France and have recently released their second album, 'Last Station On The Road To Death.' It's a mix of depressive and esoteric black metal, raw sometimes and haunting at others. The album opens with a spoken word introduction before leading into the furious buzzing, down tuned guitar assault of "Born Without Light." It is very primitive and dark while chock full of blast beats, but the vocals leave a bit to be desired. They are very throaty and tourtured, like a mix between Deathspell Omega and Glorior Beli, but sadly not as well orchestrated as the two other bands mentioned. Much of the music is very fast paced and tends to bleeds together, creating a 'demo' atmosphere. While sometimes this is very good for black metal that wants to invoke depression, it can tend to get a bit repetitive and annoying. The best sections of the song are where only one guitar is whining about while the drums take on a deep, percussive beating and indeed... it does sound esoteric and creepy.
After a while though the album does start to get annoyingly repetitive. The track "Et Inferno Ego" sounds far too similar to "Born Without Light" with the same pace, vocal style, and chords. While it is indeed furious and raw, full of emotion and pain, fans will most likely miss such things if they feel it is too similar to the rest of the music. A track like "The Ultimate Deception" is much more appreciated with its doom metal tempo and dragging, knife-to-the-throat pace that makes it a torturously wonderful black metal track. Everything about this track is clearer than the others and involves more rhythm that is creatively sound rather than just aggressive hammering of chords over and over. The GG Allin cover is the most raw track on the album and tries to merge the original sound of the song with Hell Militia's black metal sound. It is an odd marriage between balck metal, hardcore, and rhythm chugging metal, but the entire mix sounds like a badly produced demo. It is different from Militia's style, but not their best choice of options. "Last Station" creates the proper atmospehre that made "Ultimate Deception" so right to listen to. It is a bit more heavier paced with distortion but the rhythms are very bluesy and gritty for some enjoyable moments.
The best comparison that this band can be made to is a mix of Glorior Beli and Dark Fortress; both equally respectable black metal bands. While Hell Militia could use a bit of a touch up on their music, their grit and grind is certainly appreciable. They have the right idea for a haunting atmosphere while still creating raw black metal, and their messages in their lyrics are more than intriguing without being cheesy. Hopefully album number three will be the turn-around point to really get the ball rolling for these guys and pull them up to form a distinct, enjoyable sound.
After a while though the album does start to get annoyingly repetitive. The track "Et Inferno Ego" sounds far too similar to "Born Without Light" with the same pace, vocal style, and chords. While it is indeed furious and raw, full of emotion and pain, fans will most likely miss such things if they feel it is too similar to the rest of the music. A track like "The Ultimate Deception" is much more appreciated with its doom metal tempo and dragging, knife-to-the-throat pace that makes it a torturously wonderful black metal track. Everything about this track is clearer than the others and involves more rhythm that is creatively sound rather than just aggressive hammering of chords over and over. The GG Allin cover is the most raw track on the album and tries to merge the original sound of the song with Hell Militia's black metal sound. It is an odd marriage between balck metal, hardcore, and rhythm chugging metal, but the entire mix sounds like a badly produced demo. It is different from Militia's style, but not their best choice of options. "Last Station" creates the proper atmospehre that made "Ultimate Deception" so right to listen to. It is a bit more heavier paced with distortion but the rhythms are very bluesy and gritty for some enjoyable moments.
The best comparison that this band can be made to is a mix of Glorior Beli and Dark Fortress; both equally respectable black metal bands. While Hell Militia could use a bit of a touch up on their music, their grit and grind is certainly appreciable. They have the right idea for a haunting atmosphere while still creating raw black metal, and their messages in their lyrics are more than intriguing without being cheesy. Hopefully album number three will be the turn-around point to really get the ball rolling for these guys and pull them up to form a distinct, enjoyable sound.
- Always The Same
- Born Without Light
- Unshakable Faith
- Et Inferno Ego
- The Ultimate Deception
- Fili Diaboli
- Shoot Knife Strangle Beat & Crucify [GG Allin cover]
- The Pig That Became A God
- Last Station On The Road To Death
Debemur Morti
Reviewer: Colin McNamara
Nov 12, 2010
Nov 12, 2010
Next review:
Godless Rising - Trumpet Of Triumph
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