Hell-Born returns 12 years after their last album.
There are IX songs on "Natas Liah" - old school, Black Death Metal with a bit of melody typical for the group. Hail Satan!
HELL-BORN returns 12 years after their last album, with the new full length "Natas Liah". The band was started in 1996 by Behemoth co-founder Baal and Les, also a former Behemoth musician as well as a member of Damnation. There are also some guests on the album, including Adam Nergal Darski.
If the very fact that the album title being ‘hail satan’ spelt backwards doesn’t indicate what sort of concoction Hell-Born’s latest release is, then surely the track-listing at least, should highlight the comedic value of this less than audacious attempt at summoning the darkness, with such titles as Soulrape and In God’s Death demonstrating not even a shred of the sort of irony that could possibly have saved this opus from being such a ridiculous and tragicomic affair. Black metal and its many tropes and trends have long been the butt of the joke within the wider metal community, but back in the day it was at least refreshing and original, however cringey, and to be releasing such a trope-ridden and uninventive black metal album in 2021 hardly warrants much attention or discussion, giving the impression that Natas Liah will appeal only to the most conservatively minded fans of black metal. With bands such as Deafheaven, Alcest, Møl, Conjurer, Oathbreaker and even Behemoth continuing to push the boundaries of what modern black metal can be, it’s abundantly clear that Hell-Born could have produced something vastly more interesting here, had they taken the time to consider where the genre is at these days, but there is no indication that they are inspired by anything after the 90s, which is fine, but it seems the band are lost in nostalgia, pining for days gone by and yet simultaneously flogging a long dead (or at the very least, corpse painted) horse. Formed by Baal Ravenlock, one of the founding members of flagship Polish heavyweights Behemoth and even featuring a guest spot from Adam “Nergal” Darski himself, on closing track Blakk Metal, (knowingly spelt incorrectly for extra cool points) it is fair to say that in this instance, perhaps the expectations outweighed the results. For all their flaws though, Hell-Born do one thing truly well, they know their way around a riff and this album is chock full of them, from the opening tremolo pickedfury of When You Are God to the Death-like precision andintensity of Uroboros, the band know their market and there will undoubtedly be many genre purists who lap this album up. Natas Liah is at its most interesting when the band channel their less obvious influences, such as on Ye Olde Woods Devil, reminiscent of Creeping Death era Metallic and their occasional use of odd measure provides much-needed interest to some otherwise generic black metal songs, but it doesn’t do enough to detract from such childish and badly dated lyrics as “Open yourself up to Satan” and “The world is my church. My church is dead”. Additionally, lackluster production does little to lift these songs out of the mire of their own lack of ambition. And so it is that this slab of blackened thrash metal is left festering in a grave of its own making. Be bolder Hell-Born, and instead of sucking on Satan’s sphincter, maybe try digesting something that came out this millennium if you want to compete with your contemporaries.
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
