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HELLBORN DEATH ENGINES
Welcome To The Hellmouth

Self-released (2014)
Rating: 6/10

Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, this lethal thrashing quartet has been in existence since December 2011 and has previously only released a 2013 three-track demo entitled Digital Nightmares.

Although I never heard the demo, the trio of cuts have made their way onto the band’s ten-track debut Welcome To The Hellmouth, the tracks being ‘Dianoga’, ‘Masked Assassin’ and ‘Villains’. Hellborn Death Engines consists of lead vocalist / guitarist Scott Onofrychuk, guitarist / harsh vocalist Brandon McNeil, bassist / clean vocalist Shaun Paulson and drummer Brandon Morrison.

Musically, Welcome To The Hellmouth offers a rather standard thrash approach, especially in that there are elements of humour – which are not always beneficial to a band – and also the influences are clear, with the likes of San Francisco Bay Area thrashers Death Angel alongside Megadeth getting a look in. Thankfully though, there is more to this ten-track affair than meets the eye.

Although Hellborn Death Engines are not breaking the mould, they more than make up for their lack of originality with energy, and the sharing of the vocals gives the band an extra element of spice when it comes to their full frontal attack. Even so, with a hardcore twist that makes itself known every now and then combined with an Exodus-style of zaniness, this is a refreshing debut opus, if only for its passion and comedy touch.

Of all the tracks on offer, my favourite has to be the aforementioned ‘Villains’ which pays homage to those sinister characters experienced in console games. The clearer vocal chops add that crossover tinge and work well alongside the rougher strains, but this doesn’t always give the band an advantage. However, the band offer the sturdy chunks of ‘Bridge Of No Return’, which riff-wise somehow reminds me of a thrashed up version of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’ in its melody. Sadly, the lyrics do it no favours – “I hate that fucking dinosaur, Murderous mushrooms going full bore, Obese madman throwing bombs, Turtle dragons throwing shells of napalm” – and so I’m wondering once again if these guys are incorporating a games console theme into their thrash metal.

Welcome To The Hellmouth is good, clean, friendly thrash metal fun when all is said and done, but it’s not going to enable the Canadians to stand out from the crowd. With the likes of Gama Bomb et al having done this sort of thing a few years ago now, I don’t see how Hellborn Death Engines are going to progress out of the mire of being just another average thrash metal act.

Neil Arnold

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