Hellstorm - Ribut Neraka 666

HELLSTORM - Ribut Neraka 666 (Derangement Project Production - CD 2011)

Another band from Malaysia, which I got on CD recently and which surprised me nicely with their music (in the positive way) is this three piece horde called Hellstorm. This band plays something utterly obscure, satanic and old school, combining the styles of thrash, heavy and black metal into one, quite enjoyable hybrid and “Ribut Neraka 666” – which is the first full length album from Hellstorm – definitely should be an interesting offer for all the diehard old school metal maniacs.

Personally, when I listen to “Ribut Neraka 666” I think of the comparisons to such bands as Nocturnal Breed (music and vocal wise), as well as Desaster, Abigail and other such kind of bands (they also remind me some Polish bands from this style of music). And certainly Hellstorm knows how to play this music and how to deliver some crushing riffs, in songs like “Fire Black” (which probably is the best track from the whole CD), “Hellstorm” or “Deathrash 666”. Cool, thrashing and crushing riffs, great tempo, some nice, harsh and loud vocals… this is Hellstorm. All in all “Ribut Neraka 666” offers eight songs, of which two are some mysterious covers of May and Elf (have never listened to these bands, but I know that May is an old Malaysian heavy metal band and Elf is obviously an old prog rock band, which had RJ Dio on vocals)… Well, interesting is the second of these two covers, as everyone would expect to hear another cover tunes of Venom or Bathory hehe, so it is an interesting choice.

Not everything on “Ribut Neraka 666” is perfectly played and I cannot say that it is the best CD I’ve heard in this style of music… sometimes the playing could have been slightly more straight forward and more aggressive (especially on those covers), also the vocals not always have been perfectly executed, finally I also think that the drums could sound better… But surely it is a decent CD, so I can recommend it to all the diggers of underground stuff, who would like to hear something cool from such an exotic country as Malaysia.

Final rate: 65/100