Hellcrawler - Wastelands

Hellcrawler are a 5-piece from Slovenia who sound like a fast paced and heavy as fuck blend of Motorhead, Discharge and early Swedish death metal a la Entombed and Dismember. D-beats, heavy riffs, aggressive growling vocals and pounding bass are the main things this band have to offer, and they do it pretty well!



The opening song “Devastation” starts off with a short sample/intro before getting down to business with the d-beats and hard-hitting riffs! This will put any death metal or crust fan in the mood pretty quickly.

There’s not a huge amount of originality on this record, but that’s the beauty of it, really. Who needs originality when you have d-beats and hard rocking riffs?! The songs here are shrouded in an urgent post-apocalyptic atmosphere, conjuring up images of psychotic wasteland warfare and insanity.

The production on this record is perfect. You can hear every harder than hell riff, every catchier than the clap drum beat, every thumping bassline and the vocals are loud and clear in the mix. I really couldn’t ask for a better production job on an album of this style, so raise a beer for their production guy, he did an excellent job!

Like most albums that I listen to in the “metalpunk” style, I can’t really choose any standout songs, as they all flow together and keep a pretty consistent mood throughout the whole 30 minutes the album runs for. It’s a short and sweet album, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

5/5