hell human remains

Released: 13 May 2011 Label: Nuclear Blast

In the mid-eighties, Hell was widely touted by the underground as being The Next Big Thing. A wicked combination of bad luck and being just too far ahead of their time was further compounded by the tragic suicide of original vocalist Dave Halliday in 1987, meaning that they never got round to releasing a full album and Hell was lost to the world. Until now.

Resurrected by Sabbat guitarist, producer extraordinaire and uber-Hell fan, Andy Sneap, the band has waited the best part of three decades to unleash their debut album on the world and they are clearly not going to allow their second chance to slip away.

Put bluntly, this is one of the best metal albums you will hear this, or any other, year. The songs may be rooted in vintage NWOBHM but that does little to either convey the musical alchemy at work or capture just how relevant this sounds today. Even now, Hell remain streets ahead of many of their contemporaries.

As musical reference points, you’ll hear a lot of Maiden and Priest, alongside European influences like Mercyful Fate, but there is also a stylistic undercurrent of thrash, death and even black metal, particularly in some of the occult-inspired lyrics and satanic imagery. It’s blindingly obvious just why Hell is considered to be such a massive influence on the extreme scene when it was only just starting to find its cloven-hoofed feet.

Each and every track could be singled out for individual praise as there are genuinely no weak links. From the epic metal operas like Blasphemy and the Master to the short sharp shocks of The Quest and Save Us From Those Who Would Save Us, the entire album burns with a passion and an urgency, encapsulated in the sympathetic production.

Grandiose, dramatic and intriguing from beginning to end. Honestly, we could sing the praises of Human Remains all night, but if you’ve ever strapped on an air-guitar in anger, this record needs to be in your collection the minute it hits the shelves. Twenty five years in the making and worth every second of the wait; this is essential.

by Marcus Jervis