Are Hellfueled Born To Rock?
'Born II Rock' is, as the title hints, the second album from this Swedish quartet who have apparently been plying their wares since 1998. I must confess, I missed their 2003 debut LP, 'Volume One', but having listened to this release I'll definitely be making the effort to track it down.
Hellfueled play the kind of cranked up '80s-style rock/metal so beloved of young Swedish bands in the noughties, but they do it with enough class and talent to stand out from an increasingly crowded scene. Their closest contemporaries are probably Wolf, but Hellfueled counterbalance Wolf's Iron Maiden fixation with a healthy dollop of American metal to create a satisfying homage to times past which is still vital and exciting to modern ears.
Jocke Lundgren's crunchy, fat-sounding guitars wrap themselves around some powerful riffs and venomous solos of the sort we really don't hear often enough anymore, while the gritty rhythm section of Henke Lönn (bass) and Kent G Svensson (drums) pounds and throbs in a manner liable to provoke headbanging and lascivious hip-grinding in equal measure. The melodies and choruses are insistent and catchy, and vocalist Andy Alkman's high-pitched, multi-tracked voice sounds more like Ozzy Osbourne than Ozzy himself does nowadays. Indeed, the whole album sounds like a prime Ozzy solo LP from the '80s updated with an arse-kicking contemporary metal production courtesy of uber-producer Fredrik Nordstrom and Patrik J at Studio Fredman. The '80s influence is not just constrained to the band's musical approach; their lyrics would not look out of place scrolling up Ozzy's teleprompter, dealing as they do with fast cars ('Can't Get Enough'), rocking out (erm, 'Born To Rock') and, like, chicks 'n stuff ('Girls Girls').
Hellfueled also know the value of economy, delivering punchy, to the point songs which generally say all that they need to in three-and-a-half minutes or less. By wisely keeping the album under 40 minutes in length, the band ensures that the listener's attention is not given much opportunity to wander, an art which few metal groups seem to have mastered.
There's not a weak track within the eleven on offer here, but personal favourites include 'Old', with its almost-thrash guitars and soaring chorus, and the hooky, chugging 'Make It Home', which boasts a classic shout-along chorus.
Do yourself a favour and check out Hellfueled. There are no gimmicks, no posing, just simultaneously classic and contemporary heavy metal played with talent and passion. Do you really need any more?