CoC : Inferno - Utter Hell : Review

Inferno - _Utter Hell_
(Osmose Productions, 1996)
by: Henry Akeley (7 out of 10)

Wish the 80s had never come to an end? Well, slap this CD in the player, and these guys will take you right back to the good old days of the evil thrash metal underground. Big time. Think of the Slayer sound circa _Haunting the Chapel_, cross it with the crazed riff-mania of Exodus' vicious _Bonded by Blood_, add some vintage Venom panache, and you've got Inferno. Start to finish, it's a frenzied melee of wicked thrash riffs (some of which you've -definitely- heard before), galloping tempos, piercing shrieks of feedback, and - of course - tons of metal cliches. (I mean, these guys play "Ripping Hell" and "Storming Metal" back to back!) Some of the songs are total old school barnstormers - like the multi-riff-ic "Sodom" and "Infernal Invasion", to name just two. Indeed, I found _Utter Hell_ a lot more enjoyable than I figured I would - though I find that it helps to tune out the dumb lyrics. (This especially helps when the words degenerate from the usual boring Satan stuff into sexist bullshit like "Necroslut" and "Torment Her" - the kind of silly adolescent crap that makes metal musicians and fans look socially retarded.) Still, on a purely musical level, this band totally delivers the goods - even if they have showed up about a decade late.

(article published 11/10/1996)