Hellripper – The Affair of Poisons

Hellripper

‘The Affair of the Poisons’

Peaceville Records

Black/Speed/Thrash Metal

Hellripper are a one-man death machine crashing through the blackened thrash landscape. Consisting of only the very talented James McBain who plays everything here; Hellripper are ready to follow up their 2017 debut album ‘Coagulating Darkness’ with their latest offering ‘The Affair of the Poisons”.

                There are no surprises here that ‘The Affair…’ blasts out of the traps with a thrashing gallop that shows Hellripper have lost none of their prowess in the gap between albums. In fact, this album picks up almost exactly where the debut album left; of course, there is nothing new here and Hellripper have stuck entirely to their guns, launching forward, cocked and loaded. This is well worn ground from the 80’s, but if the formula isn’t broke? Then why bother tampering with it? ‘The Affair…’ has all the power, drive and grit of 80’s acts such as Venom and Sodom with its deliberately raw production and occult style lyrics; in fact, if the listener were told this album was released in 1985, nobody would give it a second thought as tracks such as ‘Vampires Grave’, ‘Hexennacht’ and ‘Savage Blasphemy’ ooze pure class, harking back to a different era. However, this album isn’t all about living in the past, there is a contemporary undertone here that has all the appeal of Midnight and even Toxic Holocaust with the virtuosity oozing from McBain as he knows perfectly how to blend speed, black and thrash metal together into one unholy trinity.

                ‘The Affair…’ is the sound of Hellripper in fine form and any fan of this genre should check it out without delay. It may well be late in 2020, but this is a fine release and may actually be one of the best releases of the year.

Adam McCann