Raise Hell - City Of The Damned

*=Staff's pick	Devil's Station City Of The Damned* Like Clowns We Crawl Reaper's Calling Open Your Mind* Ghost I Carry* My Shadow To The Gallows I Rising*

Genre	Heavy/Thrash Metal	Jimmy Fjällendal	Vocals
Tracks	10	Jonas Nilsson	Guitar
Runningtime	46 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Black Lodge	Niklas Sjöström	Bass
Release	19 May 2006	Dennis Ekdahl	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Morgana Lefay, The Haunted

Raise Hell started as a somewhat melodic death metal band à la Dissection on the debut Holy Target and moved more towards thrash on the next coming albums Not Dead Yet and Wicked Is My Game. On City Of The Damned they have taken yet another new step in their sound, more towards dark heavy metal à la Morgana Lefay. Maybe you get a bit fooled by the fact that new singer Jimmy Fjällendal's voice sounds a lot like Charles Rytkönen's. Anyway, Fjällendal is a brilliant recruiting that takes the band to a new level. There is a lot of thrash left in the sound though, in songs like Reaper's Calling, Open Your Mind and I.

To say something about my favourite tracks: City Of The Damned sets the standard for the album, heavy and melodic. Open Your Mind is a pierce of melodic thrash of the best kind. The Ghost I Carry is quite catchy, with a sticking chorus. Rising is a brilliant dark 'ballad'. The production is modern, but without being too overdone. The record has a sound that is quite 'Swedish' but not worn out already, rather quite fresh. I would say it is the perfect mix of melody and dark, heavy metal. Raise Hell is still a promising band, which hopefully will make a bigger breakthrough home in Sweden with their awaiting gig at Sweden Rock Festival this summer. City Of The Damned has the potential to be a success.