### From Hell: Ascent from hell

#### 23/04/14 || Cobal

A metal super-group with members and ex-members of Slayer, Testament, Nevermore, Death Angel and shit, blending all kinds of extreme metal to narrate the episodes of an original story: Some fuck wakes up in Hell and goes back to the world of the living to drag the priest who know possesses his body into the abyss. Or soul. Never mind. It all sounds good on paper, but somehow, it didn’t materialize quite well.

First things first, the musicians involved here need no introduction — apparently — except the leader of which I hadn’t ever heard before. After doing some research, I found out he played in some band in the past and then decided to form a super-group along with some well-known musicians… Not a hell of a resume if you ask me. It rather smells like he’s got a great budget/investor backing him up.

But let’s not be so tough on the poor guy, in fact there are some good traits in “Ascent from Hell”. Musicianship is undeniable in all instruments and songwriting is elaborate and tries to be interesting. Perhaps it tries too hard actually. The albums is full of solos and riffs that indeed range from the simplest form of death-thrash and contemporary black, to something resembling NWOBHM and even to 90s doom metal. The overall effect is not half bad, the problem is it gets old really fast. By the time half album had played, I found myself hoping it ended soon. If anything, the most remarkable to me is the pedal note-led intro for “The church”. Good ol’ J.S. Bach should be listed in the influences. But that probably has to do with some factor other than the music.

Now the vocals. The fucking vocals. Why is it that shriekers, shouters and even growlers get more annoying by the minute? I mean, for a theatrical release “in the vein of Merciful Fate” one would expect some proficient vocal work here. While not terrible, this is probably one of the plainest and least-gifted death metal vocalists in the pro league. But if I thought his voice went from boring to upsetting in a few tracks, ‘twas only cause the grandiose moment to hear him sing wouldn’t arrive until late in the album. Sweet hooker of Satan, does this guy sing bad. I’ve sure heard worse, but this is supposed to be a super-gangbang or so. I mean the guy even goes out of tune for fuck’s sake. So if the music is OK at times, the whole narration thing is utterly off-putting.

But the whole point is the story itself, uh? At least that’s what I got with all the bombastic self-promotion throughout the Web. Errr… About that, the story itself could be the script for some other irrelevant American horror film: entertaining perhaps but absolutely irrelevant. Zombies, hell, possession, murder, and the list goes on and on. The only thing missing are the teenagers played by some 30 Hollywood whores. I mean one of the tracks is titled “The walking dead”. No, really.

Sinn, stick to writing shorter songs, get some decent singer and try again; the project does have some potential after all. Everybody else, I understand: work will be work.

- Information
- Released: 2014
- Label: Scourge Records
- Website: www.fromhell.net
- Band
- Sinn: vocals, guitars
- Steve Smyth: guitars
- Damien Sisson: bass
- Paul Bostaph: drums