Band's List Thrash Heavy Helgrind (UK) Inquisition

Inspired by AJ Jacobs "I Think You're Fat" article on "Radical Honesty", I was wondering what would a radically honest review look like.

Well, first of all, after looking up Helgrind’s credentials on the net, I thought it was somehow a newer band but then discovered that Inquisition is actually their third full-length. I could try and make up for my lack of knowledge about their previous releases but sincerely as I listened to Inquisition. No. I just don't want to.

You always get a funny feeling when you have to review a band in a genre you think you know quite well, even underground-wise, and find out that not only the band you're about to review you know nothing about but they just released their third record. Like… right. Probably there’s some hidden advice telling you here that since two records did not even create some underground buzz, there’s a good chance the third one will be just as bad.

But eh. We’re here to review so we have to listen to the whole shit and more than once if necessary. I wish I had not to but I listened to this 4 times (well, to be perfectly honest, 3 and half times…). It’s not bad. It doesn’t suck but nothing really stands out.

Most of the songs feel like a rehash of Slayer’s South of Heaven and Metallica’s And Justice For All… Sometimes I hear also some mid-era Suicidal Tendencies and the only originality that can be found on Inquisition are some Heavy Metal solo parts and an attempt at Death Metal growls on one track… Other than that, it’s pretty generic. And now you know why the first two records didn’t get any attention whatsoever.

It’s dull. Sure I love both South of Heaven and And Justice For All… but these records had some “spirit”. Araya was mastering his vocals and the famous guitar duet was killing us on tracks like Mandatory Suicide reeking of doomy hell and Metallica’s fourth record was one of the "coldest" Thrash Metal album ever released. Here, we have Helgrind, whose vocals are somehow reminiscent of Araya and the rhythmic section sometimes borrows from Slayer and Metallica but that’s all we have. Copycats.

Part of the blame may be put down onto the production which is way too polished and clean. But let’s face it: Helgrind while a reasonably musically gifted band is just reproducing almost the very same songs they worshipped from their icons minus the inspiration. I know it's all “Revival” these days but that’s why the Thrash Metal revival is such a pain in the ass. It’s all been said before and only a handful of those recent bands are doing something close to the essence of Thrash Metal. For the sake of comparison, I enjoy much more the revival of OSDM (but that’s another story).

So unless you got money to waste or you’re the hardcore fan for everything Thrash Metal, save it on something else and go back to your classics.