Pandemonium – Hellspawn (2007)

With a killer presentation, a few weeks ago we received Pandemonium’s promo package that included their 2007 release “Hellspawn”. In a time when promo presentation does not matter for younger bands, it’s nice to see that Pandemonium’s new label Godz Ov War Productions cares enough to get their bands noticed and remembered by reviewers getting shit tons of albums every week.

Anyways, going back to the actual thing that matters: the music, “Hellspawn” treats us with 30+ minutes of crushing Black/Death Metal that is very high in intensity and effectiveness, even though it was released ‘back in’ 2007, this album still sound very easily comparable to anything we get in the mail these days. The band’s sound very well polished and all 10 tracks are very solid.

Featuring very diverse riffs, the band’s sound quickly grows into you. Since the opening song “Frost”, the band quickly unleashes the riffing machine with some a nice rhythmical section, greatly adorned by some massive double-kick drumming and slow-growl vocals. On the third song “Hypnotic Dimension”, the band adorns their music with some subtle keyboard hints and keeps pounding at the drums and bass guitar with relentless energy.

Most of the band’s songs are very short in nature, but all of them have a very unique feel to them, making this release not get dull or boring even after a few listens. There is a great deal of melody in the band’s sound and on songs like “Destination of Hellfire”, you can notice how the guitars go very melodic and yet the drumming is very massive and brutal, making them sound very different to many bands we get.

As we mentioned, the guitar work is very solid and while not extremely complex, it creates a very thick atmosphere. The low-growling vocals work quite well in this release, although not our favorite style. The drumming is probably the highlight and sounds very massive, the production seems to be holding it back a bit, but allowing the rest of the instruments to shine.

Overall, Pandemonium sounds like a very powerful band, and with all the things that Godz Ov War Productions has cooked up for them in 2010, we can’t wait to get more new material from this band.

Release: June 5th, 2007

Country: Poland