ALBUM REVIEW: Making Noise, Living Fast – HellgardeN
Brazil’s HELLGARDEN have a sound that’s more evocative of the Southern states of America than South America. Taking their musical cues from thrash and groove metal, HELLGARDEN has managed to craft a fairly solid and chunky sound, with visceral vocals, powerful rhythms and sludgy guitar work making for a robust and fierce sound. Their latest record, Making Noise, Living Fast, is a good statement of intent that lays down some decent foundations for a lot of their future music.
Spit on Hypocrisy is a ferocious track to open the album on, with groove-laden guitar hooks, acerbic vocals and thunderous drumming providing some of the best moments on this album. There’s a clear PANTERA influence on display, with a harder thrash edge giving it a heavier sound right off the bat. It’s a great opening gambit that draws the listener in straight away. Evolution or Destruction follows in much the same manner as the previous song, with intense vocals and thick guitars, slick guitar solos and crushing bass lines giving this a pummelling, meaty sound. It’s got plenty of slower, darker moments too, which help to give this track an ominous, punishing quality that it’s hard not to love.
Learned to Play Dirty really ramps up the rhythmic thrash metal influences, whilst still maintaining a lot of the confident swagger that has defined the first two offerings. The vocals have a shrill, acidic edge to them that provides an excellent contrast with the sludgy sound of the guitars. Again, especially in the vocals and guitar style, there’s a clear PANTERA influence that dominates the track, a theme which seems to be prevalent on this album. Fuck the Consequences is a short, sharp shock of chaotic, visceral thrash that makes the most of its brief running time to leave an impression on the listener. It’s got some great, feral vocals and a crunching bass lines that help to make it stand out for all the right reasons.
Brainwash once again sees the thrash metal elements in HELLGARDEN‘s sound come to the fore, with more imaginative riffs and more impassioned vocals injecting plenty of life into this song. A fantastic, disjointed guitar solo adds a demented side to the songs as well, and as a whole, this is one of the more memorable and catchy affairs of the whole album. Making Noise, Living Fast really allows the bass to take centre stage, adding a dense rumble to the proceedings, making this song sound like an absolute juggernaut right off the bat. Much like the previous track, this song is defined by its unerring aggression, something that really elevates it in the grand scheme of things, giving this album some more classic thrash metal hooks and making it sound wholly more powerful.
Believe in Yourself or Die is a solid piece of thrash inflected groove metal that, unfortunately, doesn’t leave much of an impression on the album, and ends up being a bit forgettable. This isn’t to say that it’s bad; it merely doesn’t stand out in the way that some of the earlier songs did. Possessed by Noise continues this formula, although there’s plenty of brilliant bass lines and drumming that help to keep this track interesting, providing a good, but underwhelming, end to the record.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking influence from another band to inform your sound, but there are some cases where HELLGARDEN rely too much on a particular formula for their own music. There’s a very obvious PANTERA influence running through Making Noise, Living Fast and although this is a great model on which to build some incredibly muscular music, this overt inspiration is oftentimes overpowering, and takes away from the album a fair bit. This album showcases a band of clearly talented musicians with a lot of potential, but they are trying to find their footing when it comes to establishing their own sound and style.
Rating: 7/10
Making Noise, Living Fast is out now via Brutal Records.
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