(written by Islander)
This isn’t the first time we’ve premiered music from the Italian death-dealers in Helslave. We did it twice in 2021 in the run-up to their second album, From the Sulphur Depths, which we predicted (pretty accurately) would “become a huge favorite for fans of massive, marauding, deliciously gruesome old school death metal”.
And now here we are, five years later — five years of unpredictable and tumultuous change in the world at large, including a global pandemic that maliciously chose to explode right about the time when Helslave’s last album dropped. It would be surprising if Helslave itself had not undergone some change of its own, and in fact it has — a very exciting change — because the band have themselves a new vocalist in the person of Enrico H. Di Lorenzo from Hideous Divinity and Eyeconoclast.
We are also very pleased to announce that Helslave have recorded a new EP that’s projected for digital release on May 8th, and we have for you today the premiere of its first single, “Burning Rebirth“.
photo by Jonathan Sgarlato
The song’s title could be understood as announcing the burning musical rebirth of Helslave itself, but it has other meanings as reflected in the lyrics. And those lyrics also provide a furious preview of what happens in the song as a whole. Here is how the lyrics conclude:
You hate me for what I am
You hate me for what you see
I am the mirror – I am the effigy of your Will to burn
Take my hands and burn with me!
Cause This is what we are!
We are the angels of fire
unholy agents of chaos
we’ll stand tonight bright
furious light that consume the living
furious light that consume the living – Will blind you all
BURN OFF! REBIRTH!
Illuminate our sacred way out
the way out this world
BURN! BURN OFF! REBIRTH!
In expressing these words (and all the other lyrics), Di Lorenzo’s voice is astonishingly ferocious, as it almost always is, like some hybrid of enraged bull, fire-breathing dragon, howling wolf, and screaming demon. The music is also vicious but also viscerally muscle-moving.
The band’s opening salvo inflicts riffing that maniacally swarms and blares with massive and mauling chainsaw-distortion, backed by drum beats that feel like the methodical hammering of coffin nails. From there the song administers a compulsive rhythmic pounding while the riffing slashes and swirls and the lead guitar squeals, shrieks, and vividly darts about.
The musical boil also expands in scope, paving the way for a spiraling and dive-bombing solo, and the instruments both groan and swivel in the lead-up to a second solo that shivers, quivers, and becomes a fret-melting piece of ecstasy.
Indeed, there’s something savagely ecstatic about the song as a whole. It’s packed with skull-smacking and spine-shaking grooves, a multitude of exhilarating riffs and leads, and of course the relentless dynamism of Di Lorenzo’s gritty, fanatically ferocious voice.
In a nutshell, this song marks a terrific return for Helslave, and leaves us very eager to hear what they bring us next.
“Burning Rebirth” was recorded at SPVN Studio by Stefano Santi and 16th Cellar Studio by Stefano Morabito. It was mixed and mastered at SPVN Studio by Stefano Santi.
To stay abreast of Helslave’s activities, including their progress toward release of the new EP, we invite you to follow them via the links below.
https://helslave.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/helslaveband/
https://www.facebook.com/helslave