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Nasum - Helvete

Published January 08 2011


*
=Staff's pick

Violation
Scoop
Living Next Door To Malice*
Stormshield*
Time To Discharge
Bullshit
Relics
We Curse You All
Doombringer*
Just Another Hog
Drop Dead
I Hate People
Go!
The Final Sleep
Slaves To The Grind
Breach Of Integrity
The Everlasting Shame
Your Words Alone*
Preview Of Hell
Illogic
Whip
Worst Case Scenario


Genre Grindcore
Mieszko Talarczyk
Vocals
Tracks 22
Mieszko Talarczyk
Guitar
Runningtime 35 Min.
-
Guitar
Label Relapse
Jesper Liveröd
Bass
Release 13 May 2003
Anders Jakobsson
Drums
Country Sweden
-
Keyboard
Producer Mieszko Talarczyk    
Similar artists Rotten Sound, Napalm Death

Nasum is without hesitation my favorite grindcoreband, to the point that I've declared the last record the band put out, Shift, to be the best record to come out of Sweden. Ever.

Helvete (which is the Swedish word for "hell") is the album that preceded Shift and although this album was surrounded by many difficulties including a terrible cold that singer/guitarist/basist (on some tracks)/producer Mieszko Talarczyk suffered, making the recording session somewhat troubled, it also saw some fantastic songs being created, and Shane Embury from Napalm Death visiting and playing bass on Drop Dead and Whip.

Nasum channeled the momentum they had built up on Human 2.0 and smacked it straight into Helvete. I personally thought that the songs on Human 2.0 were fantastic (who can honestly say that songs like The Black Swarm and Words To Die For aren't top notch?), but the material on Helvete left me reeling. These songs kill like a cluster bomb.

One of the main objections people have in regards to grindcore is that they think everything sounds exactly the same, and I'll be the first to admit that there are some not as good bands within the subgenre, but this is also why Nasum stood out against the rest as one of the greatest bands in the scene - the ability to write really good songs, that are discernible from one another, without compromising with the essentials of the music - which obviously aren't about playing lullabies.

The production on Helvete is, needless to say, excellent. Where Human 2.0 has a much darker sound, Helvete has a much more in your face sound. The drums sound brutally good, snappy and clear - a fact that has something to do with the drums being of very good quality and the extra time the band took to tune the drums with help of Per Lindberg who occasionally worked for the band as live sound engineer. The guitars are, well, brutal - but I wouldn't expect any other thing as four guitars were used on the record.

What really makes Helvete such a truly great record, though, is just how angry it sounds - Mieszko's enraged screaming was the best on the business if you ask me, and every line on Helvete is delivered with such dedication as to truly match the onslaught of the music.

Honestly, if you're at all interested in extreme music, Helvete is a record that you already have. The rest of you that haven't discovered the joys of great grindcore - Helvete is a very good place to start.

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

9

8

9

8

8

 
Summary



8 chalices of 10 - Martin


Related links:

www.nasum.com