The Hell - Brutopia

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Angry, anarchic and downright rude, coupled with an unhealthily large dose of cynical nihilism about pretty much everything, THE HELL return with another slice of angry, noisy hardcore.

“Brutopia”’s 14 tracks sort of follow a journey through a depressing dystopian world (or it could just be their native Watford…), and make a lot of noise about it. This isn’t an album for anyone easily offended, and much of the snarled performance breaks down into high energy ranting.

There are few standout tracks on the album, much of it being incredibly distorted, simplistic and mostly based in fast-paced rhythmic passages. “Sick” is the track which stands out with the most groove and memorable riffage.

Both the guitar and bass are used in very limited ways, largely because both only are used with two strings. This does mean that the group are forced to be inventive with how their tracks work. The masked ensemble’s sense of rhythm is completely twisted, and allows the vocals to take a lot from a more rap-oriented approach, and the use of heavily distorted open string thrashing and wonky staccato does pay lip service to djent stylings.

The biggest thing about THE HELL is that their lyrical content, while angry and obviously discontented, rather than just shouting for naïve and widespread changes towards equality, they have taken their view of the world and created a humorous take on subjects ranging from global disease to not being allowed into a crappy local night club. It takes a while to get through, but once the mind has processed the noisy chaos of the music, the cleverness of the lyrics does start to come through.

Songwriting: 6
Originality: 8
Memorability: 5
Production: 7