Hellknife Flames of Damnation LP
Have you ever seen the charge of a rhino? Even if the idea of first-world tourists being trampled by what is basically a living tank on a safari is not without its charm, it remains a scary sight, and the epitome of brute force and unsubtlety in the animal kingdom. HELLKNIFE is to punk what the charging rhino is to nature. The band goes straight for the throat and leaves no time to hide. The Germans have been going for a while now, and they bulldoze their way through with a heavy and aggressive blend of beefy Scandinavian hardcore and guttural death metal. I am reminded of WOLFBRIGADE or GUIDED CRADLE going through their collection of Swedish death metal. This hits supremely hard, so much at times that it tends to exhaust the listener (my neighbours couldn’t last more than two songs). Flames of Damnation is not for the faint-hearted, but rather for those dark days when you just feel like you hate everything and need to listen to something that reflects this and makes you believe that you are a charging rhino, too. Really good for what it sets out to do.