Somewhere in the bowels of hell, there’s an incubator dedicated to the creation and nurture of voices stirred with Satan’s honey, and music inspired by ferocity, anger and the need for noise. Individuals are infused with hell’s conception and sometimes find others who are also living vessels of heavy metal talent.
With that, we have the birth of Hellyeah, whose latest album Band of Brothers, has touches of evil genius. The eleven tracks on this CD hold something for everyone who enjoys their music wild and hard.
The five members of this unit have been in the business for a long time, and have come from impressive stables. Chad Gray (vocals) and Greg Tibbett (guitar) hail from the band Mudvayne, while Tom Maxwell (guitar) played in the band Nothingface, and Bob Zilla (bass) and Vinnie Paul (drums) both played in Damageplan, while Paul also played drums for Pantera.
Thus, each member of Hellyeah brings something savage to the table, and truly let their creative juices run free in this incarnation. Beginning with the first single ‘War In Me’ which starts with trademark death metal screaming and then becomes more melodic. The second single and also the the title track ‘Band of Brothers’, is about war, sounding like Rob Zombie in some parts, which is not a bad thing.
On some tracks it’s tough to know whether the guys are being serious or taking the piss, especially on ‘Drink Drank Drunk’. ‘Between You and Nowhere’ is oddly country, and could be considered the ballad of the album, but this whole production finishes on a testosterone fuelled note and we’re back to high octane action in ‘What It Takes to Be Me’.
The quality is a bit all over the place but when the guys get it right they really do channel the sound of sweet hell.
– Sharon Brookes
