Rating: 7.7

Country: Poland

Genre: Death/Black Metal

Record Label: Lilith Productions

Release Date: 2008

Track list:
1. Eucharistik Masochism
2. Lamentation of Gods
3. God Father - Goat Father
4. Gospel of Havoc
5. In the Name of Hellfire
6. Insatiable Thirst for Injure
7. Miserere (Introit)
8. Extra Strenght of the Obscure
9. Too Pity Too Profane
10. Great Expiatory's Suicide

Total playing time 43:33

Band Website: Hell United

Hell United - Hornokracy

V - Vocals, Guitars
Bartollo - Guitars
Kriss - Vocals, Bass
Black Messiah - Drums

Due to some internal problems between the members of the Polish Death/Black act Eclypse, it was unanimously decided by them to spurn that stupidly spelled band name for a new one. As if greatly moved by the touching show of unity in that decision, the flaming little fiends opted for a moniker honouring their newfound unity, Hell United. Upon witnessing their debut performance on Hornokracy (don't even ask), this reviewer is convinced that they are among the best teams in the glorified Polish ass-kicking league.

Hornokracy kicks off to an auspicious bell-ringing intro. According to my mom, its sound purifies the negative energy which my room is allegedly full of thanks to porn and metal. There, however, won't be enough time for you to test its effect, for soon the music undergoes an ugly transformation, and like a cute toddler who just a moment earlier was enjoying his food before he started chocking, disgusting hellish Death/Black music spews out from the mouth of your speakers, defiling whatever sanctity you dreamt for your room to have. Hell United's modern Death/Black music falls somewhere between Belphegor circa Necrodaemon Terrorsathan and relevant hybrid era Behemoth but minus the obnoxious pomp. No, Hell United do not have to rely on flashy vacuous gimmickry or artistic autofellatio to prove their worth; they can sustain their music solely on the strength of their riffs. Check out the excellent riff in “Lamentation of Gods” if you think I am kidding you. Then the song with the horribly confused title, “God Father Goat Father”, begins with a rude interrupted barrage of martial blasts, creating a build up for stormy Krisiun-styled riffing, which later is alternated with vicious black metal parts. Some of them are even epic, glorifying the atmosphere while the drums rattle away competently in typical fashion.

Although chaos follows them around like a magnified shape-shifting shadow, it is kept under check and Hell United do not let it envelop the music like they did in the case of their contemporaries, Deception [review]. It is not just their superior harnessing skills, as Hell United also have slower, trance-inducing or reflective dirge-like parts timely interceding in the ongoing altercation between death and black metal; "Insatiable Thirst for Injure" is terrific example of that. Every now and then sensible leads too make a brief appearance mostly to emphasize the good parts. This wonderful arrangement of contrasting parts makes their unoriginal music more interesting and listenable that it should be, and the production, which is fairly lucid in spite of being crisp and caustic, certainly helps their cause. Included in this disc are four songs of their Extra Strength to the Obscure demo, which are more or less in the same vein but are rawer and thrashier and slightly more inclined towards death metal due to subtle influences of early Vader and Morbid Angel. As is the tendency of the band to have a tiny outro at the end of most of their songs which is dovetailed into the following one, “Too Pity Too Profane” too has bells ringing (yes!) when it is about to end and when carried over to “Great Expiatory's Suicide”, its intro, having a choir-like chanted passage, amusingly sounds like someone singing in a sleepy voice in the shower. However, the outro to that one and the ambient piece, “Introit: Miserere”, are much more convincing and appeal to your sensitive side.

This is a seriously impressive debut by Hell United. If they can move away from the typical Death/Black muddle towards a more original, unique sound, Hell United might just find themselves on top of the dual-genre rankings. Horns up!

September 25th, 2008