When Bombs Of Hades first got together with the intention of getting wasted and blasting out some old-school Swedish death metal, who could have predicted that after a handful of EPs and split releases they'd release one of the gnarliest albums to follow that template of recent years? With their sophomore album The Serpent's Redemption, they've done just that.
Released on CD via Pulverised Records last year, 2013 sees a reissue on vinyl via Blood Harvest Records, a far more appropriate format for such decrepit death metal.
'Crawl Away And Bleed Forever' opens the album in true Override Of The Overture style with the buzz of a lone guitar, before the breakneck drums arrive and proceed to complete decimate your hearing. Not long after the track switches to a punk-as-fuck rhythm, which is complimented perfectly by guitarist/vocalist Jonas Stålhammer's sneering snarl. When they crash into the perfectly primitive 'Darkness My Soul', they don't deviate far from this initial template save for throwing in plenty of soloing and screaming dive bombs, mercifully keeping them to the brutal and brief side; you'll find no histrionics here, just filthy, frantic fretwork.
The simple stomp of 'Burn', with its cry of "Burn! Burn all your gold!", is a relentless rager that captures the sordid spirit of early death metal, continuing the whiplash before the title track serves to break up the momentum. Here the band lower the tempo to a crawl, allowing them to explore a more dynamic approach to death, retaining all the menace of the early tracks while allowing them to include additional atmospheric elements like appropriately cheesy synths. Given the unrelenting approach they adopted in the first few tracks such an abrupt change of pace is a little jarring, but it's still a solid song.
'Forgotten In Graves' ramps things back up with its rolling drums and angular guitar hacking before a putrescent "Blurgh!" from Jonas signals the start of another d-beat banger, however the simplistic nature of this track gets a bit boring after a while. Did the paltry three riff's found here really need to go on for over four minutes? In an album which is mostly all killer and no filler, it's a definite lull. Thankfully 'Incubus Descending' with it's Reifert-worshipping writhing soon redeems them, and when the music comes crashing to a halt to allow a cry of "Lay down your soul to the gods of death!" you'll be too busy laughing at this audacious Venom shout-out to catch the demented solo which follows. Much like their Newcastle forefathers they imbue their songs with plenty of actual hooks that'll have you gleefully headbanging and air-guitaring along, an attribute that is sorely lacking in a lot of modern death metal.
They offer up one final slab of unholy death punk, the wonderfully Swedish-accented chorus of 'Skull Collector' firmly cementingBombs Of Hades as one of the few modern exponents of old-school death metal that's actually fun to listen to. It would have been a great track to close the album with, but instead we're left with the ten-minute turgidity 'Scorched Earth', an over-long dirge that just doesn't feel like it comes naturally to a band who play concise, to-the-point blasts of crushing death. There are some great moments throughout the track, but they're surrounded by pointless ambient and indulgent soloing which detracts from the song itself. In the time it takes to drag itself to a close, they could have squeeze another couple of three-minute rippers into the vinyl running time. Ah well, maybe next time.
Despite a couple of dud tracks, The Serpent's Redemption is a raucous, raw slab of old-school death metal, for fans of Tormented, Death Breath and Dismember.
