Band:	Hell
Album:	Curse & Chapter
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	November 22, 2013
A review by:	R Lewis

01. Gehennae Incendiis
02. The Age Of Nefarious
03. The Disposer Supreme
04. Darkhangel
05. Harbinger Of Death [Race Against Time cover]
06. End Ov Days
07. Deathsquad
08. Something Wicked This Way Comes
09. Faith Will Fall
10. Land Of The Living Dead
11. Deliver Us From Evil
12. A Vespertine Legacy

[DVD] [digipak bonus]
Derby Assembly Rooms
01. Let Battle Commence
02. Something Wicked This Way Comes
03. Plague And Fyre
04. The Devil's Deadly Weapon
05. Save Us From Those Who Would Save Us

Bloodstock Open Air
06. Darkhangel
07. The Quest
08. Blasphemy And The Master

If that freaking genius that was Edgar Allan Poe lived in these days, he would have listened to Hell. Their crazy, obscure and disquieting traits would have allowed them to get along well.

But to the music now. Hell, died out in 1987 after five years of undeserved struggling in almost complete anonymity, were resurrected more than twenty years later and rose to fame in 2011 releasing Human Remains, which only contained re-recordings of classic Hell tracks that were discarded by the music biz. The litmus test, that will classify them as a bunch of nostalgic musicians or as a force in the heavy metal scene, however, comes with Curse And Chapter, that is, in fact, an album composed of both old tracks and new ones.

What jumps to the ear just after the first second of listening is that what was appreciated in Human Remains has not been betrayed, but improved. The unique, oppressive Hell atmosphere serves as background for clever, NWOBHM-esque riffing, straight-to-the-point yet unpredictable songwriting, Bowes' stunningly dramatic performance and cathedral-like gothic keyboards.

If there was to find something to distinguish Curse And Chapter from its predecessor is this last feature: keys are drastically more influential than in Human Remains, and find their rightful space in the production (another of this albums' ups) without overhanging the rest or disappearing.

Despite this dark mood surrounding everything, this is an appreciably varied album. Huge merit of this goes to the fact that the band can count on multiple songwriters, so that you can find here straightforward sing-along tracks as well as proggy structures.

The added value of this release, and the fact that it ensures us that we'll hear about Hell again, is that the new tracks are not out-shined by the classics. To be honest, without a specific list I couldn't distinguish them: it's like these 25+ years were nothing but a brief stop, as the band is still able to compose tracks of the same sky-high quality.

The door that was solemnly shut at the end of Human Remains reopened and another great album made its way towards us. As previously mentioned, it's like these decades haven't passed, but lets ask ourselves: what would we be listening to if Hell received their well-deserved fame in the 80's? Oh boy what have we lost?

Anyway, let's focus on today and let's admit that a once dead band is now revitalizing heavy metal. And this is a pretty metal thing.