Memoriam - The Hellfire Demos

MEMORIAM - The Hellfire Demos 7"EP 2016

A new band formed by members of Benediction and Bolt Thrower?? That sounded way too intriguing, almost unreal to be true haha! But I had to check it, I had to have this seven inch vinyl! Memoriam comes with two songs set called “The Hellfire Demos” and musically delivers death metal that you could easily foresee. It’s a combination of both legendary bands, but with the strongest accent placed on the war machine that Bolt Thrower is, with their characteristic rhythm, heaviness, melody and even with the military concept. I honestly don’t know how did they start Memoriam and if both Benediction and Bolt Thrower are busy these days, or not? Maybe they’re not, so this is why some of these guys started new thing. Whatever… it’s just always nice to hear some new tunes from them!

But at the first listen my reactions was like “OK, it sounds good, but I expected more, to be honest”. I felt like these songs are not as good as the last albums from Benediction and Bolt Thrower and I was missing something there. Maybe my expectations were just too high? I don’t know. Anyway, after some spins I started to like this EP more. It’s very solid, well played old school death metal, with a lot of nice, heavy riffs, some melodic leads, I like the sound it has… everything is in the right place and “War Rages On” is the better of the two songs.

Obviously record labels had to sign Memoriam quickly, as this will be an easy sale for them. Nuclear Blast signed the band, so we can all wait for the debut album now. Good. I hope it will crush, but I will not tolerate mediocrity from these experienced musicians. By the way, Memoriam brings Andrew Whale back to the scene. You may remember this man, as he was drumming on all early Bolt Thrower records! You can hardly recognize him on the photo though haha!

Final rate: 75/100