Hell – Curse and Chapter
Release Date: November 22, 2013
NWOBHM band Hell are a band the seldom get mentioned when referencing the now legendary metal movement. Hell was a band that I didn’t know existed until the release of their 2011 album Human Remains. Producer/guitarist Andy Sneap (who produced some of my favorite metal albums including Accept’s ‘comeback’ album Blood of the Nations) is responsible for the resurrection of Hell and for putting them deservingly on the metal map where they belong. Curse and Chapter is a perfect follow up to Human Remains and while sonically comparable the songs on this album are much stronger. The band plays with a lot more restraint and discipline which has the album sounding a lot more cohesive and consistent.
Curse and Chapter is a bombastic platter of classic sounding metal in a modern time that completely flew under my radar. It took a while for me to finally get to a point where I could listen to it but once I did I was very much impressed. First off, I was once again impressed with the overall production and sound of this record. Having Andy Sneap as your guitarist and producer pretty much is the ultimate win. With him Hell got one of the best metal guitarists out there and one of the best metal producers on the planet. Sneap loves his metal so he knows how a metal band should sound.
Lead singer David Bower has to be one of the greatest metal singers out there melding his King Diamond meets Rob Halford style voice. Bower is such an animated and dramatic personality live and that personality is magically and perfectly captured on album to a “t.” The album is a really great listen but after about 6 or 7 songs it just seemed to lose its charm for me. After a while the songs all just kind of sonically sounded so close to each other that there seemed to really be a lack of character differentiating one song from the next. If you’re looking for some great metal that’s easy on the ears and a good listen as background music this is definitely an album to own. It’s very easy to listen to but it’s just not what I would call a captivating album in the least.
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