Poland has such a wealth of black and death metal that there are always new acts to discover, even some that have been around for multiple decades but may not have come across your radar. Hell-Born was one of those bands for me, as while they’ve been around since 1996 their original run of albums in the 2000s passed me by and it wasn’t until 2021’s Natas Liah that I became familiar. The group was formed by members who played on some of Behemoth’s earlier albums as well as in Damnation, and initially their sound pulled in a lot of influence from classic death metal and death/thrash before pivoting to more of a blackened death metal approach. Despite being extremely productive in their earlier days and releasing six albums between 2001 and 2008, it would be a thirteen-year gap until Natas Liah emerged. Thankfully the wait for another full length hasn’t been nearly as long, as five years later the current incarnation of the band has returned with VII. As with their more recent material, this album strikes a balance between the black and death side of things and brings equal amounts of brutality and darker atmosphere.
What’s immediately noticeable when listening to VII is how the sound feels a bit fuller and bolder compared to some of the band’s previous material. Where Natas Liah and some of the other albums had more of an old-school sound when it came to the production, VII finds that fine balance of modern clarity without losing the intensity or density of the instrumentation. Opener “Therion Calls” is a great example, as the drumming thumps you right in the chest and there’s a noticeable amount of denseness to the bass work but the recording also gives space for some of the melodic elements to shine through more than they have in the past. It’s here that the band is able to shake things up in interesting ways, as some moments go for the type of heavier blackened death metal attack you might expect while other moments let that colder, moodier atmosphere take center stage. “In Scarlet and Death” makes a strong impression early on, as it opens with a scorching guitar solo that has a bit of a rock ‘n roll feel before moving between slower, melodic driven sections and faster blasting. This back and forth between the colder black metal and death metal brutality works well, and later cuts like “Funeral of All” and “Exodus (Cross the Styx)’ shake up this formula in ways that make things a bit less predictable. Admittedly it did take a few songs for things to really get going and showcase the best riffs leads and solos Hell-Born has to offer, as while “Therion Calls” and “Chaotic Entities” aren’t bad by any means they don’t stand out nearly as much.
Band founders Baal Ravenlock and Les both contribute vocals throughout VII, and they consistently switch off in ways that keep the intensity high. The primary approach is a fuller growl that keeps a lot of the death metal influence, but there are backing shrieks and screams that fall a bit closer to the black metal end of the spectrum. Even with how huge the instrumentals sound on this album, the vocals always stand tall above them and feel like they’re consistently going to pummel you into the dirt. One element I really like is how well the growls intertwine with the mid-tempo grooves, as the combined weight of the two hits considerably hard. You do also get some spoken word on “The One With Horns” and some chanted/yelled sections on “Exodus (Cross the Styx)”, though the latter doesn’t feel like it integrates quite as seamlessly with the other pitches.
It took a few songs before Hell-Born’s latest really sunk in for me, but once it gets going the shifts between colder black metal atmosphere and bludgeoning death metal are done in ways that feel a bit less predictable than usual and as a result the material sticks with you. The group has made some meaningful tweaks both on the writing and production front for this appropriately named seventh full length, leaning a bit more into blackened death metal without feeling like they’re re-treading the territory Baal Ravenlock and Les explored with Behemoth so many years ago. If you have yet to dive into Hell-Born’s discography, this is a great place to start and showcases the band is still just as potent three decades in. VII is available from Deformeathing Production.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
