After two demos and a split, Texas’ Hexella sacrifice their debut album on the black altar of Hells Headbangers. Black metal, intense and claustrophobic, fused with a punk edge and excellent songwriting is what’s on offer here. The riffs scream at me the way all good black metal does, grim-faced and heavy and recorded perfectly, giving the band a truly different sound. Fusing punk to black metal isn’t a new thing (even Darkthrone did it), but few if any (except maybe Mordant Rhed) are doing it with this kind of authenticity and honesty. The punk elements don’t detract at all from the vicious sound of the band, but amplify it, give it a sense of danger and mystique. Each song is truly distinct, packed full of evil-ass riffs that will get that toe tappin’. They’re all memorable, and all excellent. And just when I thought blast beats wouldn’t feature, there they were, ferocious as fuck, in “Ophitic Revelation.” They bring a death metal aggression to the track that tells me this band can do anything and still remain true to their core sound. I can’t say enough good about this record – it’s unique, it’s heavy, it’s honest. Just go get it. Hexella https://hexella.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/hexella218 https://www.instagram.com/hexella.218/ Hells Headbangers https://www.hellsheadbangers.com/ https://hexella-texas.bandcamp.com/album/the-ancient-gaping-mouth https://www.facebook.com/hellsheadbangers https://www.instagram.com/hellsheadbangers/#
