Hellspawn - There Has Never Been a Son of Me

HELLSPAWN - There Has Never Been a Son of Me (OLD TEMPLE - CD 2016)

It’s been a while since Hellspawn released their last album, excellent “The Great Red Dragon”. I don’t really know what was going on with this band since then, but at least their new album came out recently, which is “There Has Never Been a Son of Me”, putted out by Old Temple. In case you don’t know Hellspawn, they’re Polish death metal act with three albums and one demo in discography. I guess that for many fans out there Polish death metal is already something that equals to quality and distinctive brutal music. And believe me, Hellspawn is one of the most solid and enjoyable bands from here, in my opinion. I have all the stuff they recorded, I was happy to watch how they’re maturing, evolving in good direction, making better and better music. “There Has Never Been a Son of Me” is another step forward for this band for sure, another great release, another awesome quality death metal. Obviously it’s not a groundbreaking record, which would bring something exceptional and new to the genre. But are we even looking for something like this? I don’t. I just want to hear killer riffs, great songs, good arrangements and powerful death metal. “There Has Never Been a Son of Me” has all that for sure.

Hellspawn take on death metal is quite a diverse thing, because I think they equally dose the old school vibes, as well as the more modern death metal influence. Their music can be technical and blasting like crazy, but next there will be a slower, even kind of epic song. At few occasions Hellspawn decided to use keyboards, but I am not sure if I like the effect, to be honest. It immediately reminds me how Vader decided to incorporate keyboards into their music and I never really liked it, it sounds odd and almost inappropriate for this sort of bands, in my opinion at least. It’s like they wanted to get an extra point for bringing something new, doesn’t matter if it sounds good or not. Of course I am not gonna moan that there are keyboards on “There Has Never Been a Son of Me”, some of you may like this orchestral feeling keyboards add, some won’t, right? Sometimes it sounds worse (the final song), sometimes better, like for example in “Antitrinitarian”, which has such a small “God of Emptiness” vibe mixed with a bit of orchestral Septic Flesh-icism that you’re gonna love it anyway haha! “Heralded by Prophets” also has that killer feeling alike to Morbid Angel and damn, what a nice song it is, I simply love it.

Other than that, the album is filled with ferocious, brutal, often fast death metal that will blow your head off. Similarities to Morbid Angel, Vader, Deicide, Vital Remains and such is strong, and these names should give you an idea what can you expect from Hellspawn. But as said, this is quite diverse material and I like how the band combines different types of riffs or tempos, aggression with some melodic accents, even how the vocals vary. It just brings fantastic results. It’s almost easily listenable, because this album is so straight forward that you’ll get into it immediately.

Check it out then. And read the lyrics, which are filled with strong antichristian topics.

Standout tracks: “Do Not Be Among Idolaters”, “Antitrinitarian”, “Heralded by Prophets”

Final rate: 75/100