Helstar - This Wicked Nest

Published April 29 2014

*=Staff's pick	Fall Of Dominion* Eternal Black This Wicked Nest Souls Cry Isla De Las Muñecas Cursed* It Has Risen Defy The Swarm Magormissabib*

Genre	Heavy/Thrash Metal	James Rivera	Vocals
Tracks	9	Larry Barragan	Guitar
Running time	52 Min.	Rob Trevino	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Matej Susnik	Bass
Release	25 April 2014	Mikey Lewis	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	---
Similar artists	---

American metal outfit Helstar has a long and motley resume to look back at. I never was one of its major fans and when I look into the new release, This Wicked Nest, I approach it with manifested caution. At least a dozen spins later, I find myself standing at the same point and I'm still not convinced by the band's achievements.

After the opening with thrash metal speed monster Fall Of Dominion, my interest drops a bit even though the band to a certain degree maintains its intensity and rather lineal course. Most songs tend to grind their way at two velocities. It's speedy or rather speedy and they pretty much follow the same formula all throughout the entire record. Therefore I see myself a little confused when the doom metal track, Cursed, suddenly appears from out of nowhere. It rapidly transforms this effort to something completely different for 7.5 minutes and although it may not be considered as doom metal to full extension, it enhances the variation for a while and I stop and listen closer for a moment of time.

They try to rise to the occasion, but suffers a little from the overall sound picture, which in my opinion is all too vapid. Some people might call this production dynamic and whatever, but to me there is a definite lack of crushing power, which usually is capable of crowning the material to greater accomplishments. It doesn't seem constrained, yet this album has an evident lack of balls to cement a strong approach and to eliminate my doubts.

I'm however by far not able to find anything that would distinctly make this record crap. The record is generally somewhat decent as far as I'm concerned, but also I'm pretty much left without any major cool impressions and therefore this release's outcome is something that isn't specifically attractive to me. Perhaps it's also the absence of truly captivating songs that makes me feel that this record isn't able to pass the breaking point. It definitely roams in my realms of metal and I usually fancy stuff like heavy metal with various faster moments, but Helstar and I apparently don't connect.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	6	4	6	4

Summary
4 chalices of 10 - Tobbe