### Hellcrawler: Wastelands

#### 05/12/11 || revenant

Hellcrawler huh? What is that, a satanic baby or something? That’d make a fucken ace horror movie, wouldn’t it?

“Oh my god, it’s the hellcrawler!!!” “Quick, run away” Moments later… “Well that was easy. Who would have thought escaping the clutches of a baby would be so easy?”

Hmmm, maybe that idea needs some work. Fuck it, it can shoot laser beams through it’s eyes or some shit. Then the Hellcrawler will fuck you up. Yeah!

So the band Hellcrawler has nothing whatsoever to do with babies, but instead are a death metal outfit from the whore capital of Western Slovenia (their description, not mine). Their music reminds me of death n’ roll era Entombed, minus the bluesy influences and a little darker. Some of the songs are genuinely good (“Rattlesnake Tavern” a definite highlight), but ultimately this work is dragged down by its production. I really hate marking down albums for production, particularly in the case where the band deliberately went down the path deliberately. The sound here is very dark and grimy, but it really sucks and energy and personality from the album, which is a damn shame. A fair effort, and legally freely downloadable from the band’s Bandcamp page, so worth checking out for death n’ roll fans.

6/10: Not a complete waste(land).