HELLSAW
Hellsaw’s third album ‘Cold’ is also their debut for Napalm Records. As the band’s name suggests, this full-length is a black metal composition but not just any one-dimensional black metal CD. Hellsaw are unafraid to rework their black metal into something genuinely chilling and multi-dimensional. The atmosphere of the album is certainly a frosty one and not in a clichéd black metal way. Hellsaw have truly worked hard to create something isolated and freezing through the use of atmospheric riffs, samples depicting cold and icy melodies against stormy riffs. ‘A Suicidal Journey’ opens the album with an organic acoustic guitar interlude before plummteting the temperature into minus numbers, with melancholic passages of black metal and high-pitched shrieks. Nods to Burzum and Shining appear through ‘Cold’ but Hellsaw pick up some other influences from outside the misanthropic genre, like the crusty ‘I Saw Hell’ and the beautiful symphonic outro ‘Subterranian Empire’ which closes the album. ‘Sulphur Prayer’ is a portentous instrumental which sounds anguished in addition to fridgid. Musically, it consists of very little but it contributes significantly to the isolated and inhospitable feel of the album. ‘Cold’ is a listening experience, well-executed and should be highly acclaimed. Black metal like this usually has a tendency to wander onwards for an unbelieveable length of time, eventually falling into boredom but Hellsaw know precisely when to stop. A couple moments of idleness impede this release from attaining full marks but it is definitely worth picking up.
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Napalm Records
Album
COLD
Review by Elena Francis
RUNNING TIME:
46:53
RELEASE DATE:
30th March 2009
TRACK LISTING
1) A Suicide Journey
2) The Black Death
3) Der Harzwald
4) 1°F
5) Cold Aeon
6) Psycho Pastor
7) Sulphur Prayer
8) I Saw Hell
9) Moonrites Diabolicum
10) Ache
11) Subterranian Empire
2) The Black Death
3) Der Harzwald
4) 1°F
5) Cold Aeon
6) Psycho Pastor
7) Sulphur Prayer
8) I Saw Hell
9) Moonrites Diabolicum
10) Ache
11) Subterranian Empire
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
Austria
"Hellsaw are unafraid to rework their black metal into something genuinely chilling and multi-dimensional."