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HELLWAY TRAIN
Borderline

Classic Metal (2024)
Rating: 8/10

This scorching Brazilian act (named after co-founder and vocalist Marc Hellway) has been lurking around since 2010. I’m of the understanding that the combo split five years later but returned in 2020. Borderline is, surprisingly, the band’s debut full-length outing but it’s a fine example of sprightly traditional heavy metal blanketed by a nostalgic fog.

Simple yet scorching, Borderline boasts electrifying axe work from Vinícius Thram who is also a founding member. Many of the songs here are reasonably simple and sizzle with an 80s vibe, particularly standard rockers like ‘Born To Rock Hard’ which is however somewhat akin to a bog standard lower league mid-80s track, but at their strongest Hellway Train forcefully thrash out brilliant songs like ‘Hell On Earth’. This track glints and speeds like classic Judas Priest and that’s where the band sits most comfortably.

Elsewhere, ‘Ghost (Over The Night)’ is a brooding and epic track; it has a power metal vibe mixed with a Savatage nature. ‘Gateways To Arkham Asylum’ is another big favourite as again the band channels classic Judas Priest via ‘Painkiller’ married to blazing Mercyful Fate. This is scintillating heavy metal that is apt at some killer mid‐paced moments too, as on ‘Cold Town’, but a majority of what this debut offers is molten steel that I can’t recommend enough.

Neil Arnold

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