Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Hellcrawler
Label: On Parole Productions
Release: year_month
Length: 31:02
Rating: 3.8/5
Picture a classic post-apocalyptic spaghetti western: a filthy gunslinger in a ragged, dusty poncho trudges into an abandoned saloon. For company on the hundreds of miles he’s covered on foot, he’s had nothing but »tumbleweed«, a scorching radioactive sun, the rattle of rattlesnake tails and mutants hungry for human flesh. With his finger twitching on the trigger of his Smith&Wesson revolver, he steps through the creaking swinging doors, but instead of a drunk piano player banging on the keys, a busted jukebox greets him with the buzzsaw roar of HM-2 guitars. And with the moaning of former tavern regulars lurking in the dark, now half-rotten corpses thirsty for his blood.
It’s in this kind of post-apocalyptic haze that Nova Gorica’s Hellcrawler return with their second studio album Sandstorm Chronicles, the follow-up to their debut Wastelands. The new album is once again tied to the conceptual story of Hellcrawler, and thanks to lineup changes the band shows up in a slightly different light, though still very much their own. Sandstorm Chronicles is a somewhat more classic metal record, with a bigger emphasis on melody, probably the result of the guitar duo Andraž and Matjaž joining forces, both of them veterans of Nova Gorica’s melodic death metal bands Entreat, Evenrain and Slavocracy. Even though there are indeed a few more melodic bits here and there, those elements are by no means dominant. Hellcrawler still stay firmly planted in death ‘n’ roll in the vein of later Entombed, while the band’s protagonist saws the heads off zombie freaks with raw-sounding guitars sweetened with the classic sound of Swedish death metal – HM-2 pedals.
Even though the sound of the album is thus 100% Swedish death metal, Hellcrawler are no copy of Nihilist, Entombed or Dismember, since Sandstorm Chronicles is dominated above all by strong punk and d-beat influences, with a bit of crust plus black and heavy metal thrown in. The mix is just varied enough while staying potently explosive and energetic, even though the riffs sound pretty simple at first listen and the drums mostly stay locked into oom-pah d-beat patterns. You could maybe accuse the songs of sounding a bit too much alike, but at a good half hour the album is just the right length to keep things from getting monotonous. The riffs are hard-hitting in their »simplicity«, and the vocals are venomous enough, that the album’s atmosphere pulls you into the story of Hellcrawler’s post-apocalyptic trek without any trouble, and the sandstorm spins around again and again. Working in favor of the whole package are also the great sound, just dirty enough and not overly polished (Janez Zega’s production nicely captured the band’s grimy essence, and mastering was handled by the legendary Dan Swanö), and the super cover art with an Easter egg from the debut (Rattlesnake Tavern).
Lineup
Pijoe – drums
Andraž – guitar
Miran – vocals
Matthias – guitar
Alan – bass
Production
Hellcrawler
Tracklist
1. Unholyverse
2. Death Park
3. Grim Moira
4. Pathway in the Dunes
5. Hell’s Gorge
6. The Last City of Seiyn
7. Sea of Storms
8. Wasteland Shamanism
