Hellbender Con Limón LP reissue
In 1997, when Andrew at Reservoir Records (DOC HOPPER, BLACK ARMY JACKET, SILENT MAJORITY, SPAZZ, C.R., STICKS AND STONES, etc.) sent HELLBENDER to Alap Momin’s (ASSFACTOR 4, RYE COALITION, TRANS MEGETTI, YAH MOS, DÄLEK, etc.) basement in Parsipianny, NJ to record their third LP, Con Limón, no one knew that it was to be their final release as a band. Nearly thirty years later, Dead Broke put in the work to make this available again. I think what attracted Dead Broke to this release was, in part, the highly unique and melodic post-hardcore song structures, starting with the sometimes odd, jazzy chords of guitarist Wells Tower, moving to the bass-driven songs of Al Burian that reflect driving down a road without headlights, and culminating in Harrison Haynes’ drumming, articulated perfectly at the level of Bill Stevenson (maybe even better). However, the truly irrevocable parts of this record are layered in the lyrical content, as the imagery is far too blunt to be fiction. The overall specific life points are cadenced out fast and with terrifying clarity, as if standing on a glass bridge above a jagged gorge—like, you know you’ll be OK, but fuck is it scary and uncertain right now. When HELLBENDER was writing Con Limón, they were all clearly going through a transitional period individually, and I don’t think they knew that they were done as a band until they heard their record played back to them. It was then realized that they had weathered an oceans’ weight of change together, made it through, and this was their goodbye to each other. It’s funny how everyone in this band went on to do things that became much better known, but for me, this was when they were perfect. Now remastered, Con Limón pushes forward buried, nuanced elements in the songs, like bringing small gems to the surface. There are now hundreds of bands that have stylistic elements that mirror Con Limón, but zero of those modern bands have reached the high marks of this record. Also, those hundreds of modern bands have probs never heard of this record, and now, perhaps, they will. I really dig it and I think you should, too.