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SOME REVIEWS OF THE ALBUM!!!

Hellbelly seems like an appropriate name for this bunch of metalheads, cos' their debut LP "What Would Satan Do?" sounds as if it was recorded in the belly of the beast. This is album no.1 for these metal merchants from Lund, Sweden and they make pretty damn sure, right from the first note, that heavy metal is their main concern. So every single element of a good metal record is here: heavy riffs and manic solos, long duration tracks ,dark lyrics. A first listening to 'What would...' reveals a range of familiar sounds and, as far as influences are concerned, HB honor the mighty Sabbath's heritage, picking the heaviest parts of their career rather than the bluesy ones. But beside Sabbath, HB seem to have an ear for other more recent bands like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pantera and Kyuss. Oskar Forsberg's (lead guitar and HB's main composer) downtuned guitars combined with Jon Agrell's (lead vocals) angry croon is pretty much alike to the sound the aforementioned bands used to recreate when they dealt with Sabbath's songs. In addition to Forsberg's tight and edgy production, HB's songs are closer to Godsmack's work, save for the fact that HB play in a more straightforward metal manner. The songs, and especially Forsberg's riffs, are mainly based on stable pattern, mostly exchanging tempos from speedy, like "Amityville (The Flesh)", to doomy, like the mourning closer "The Undertaker". At some point the songs seem to repeat themselves and at times the whole thing even sounds a bit dull, due to the additional fact that the record runs over 60', which makes HB's first attempt rather ambitious. Other than that, "What Would..." is full of good ideas and shows the band's ability to compose a bunch of heavy songs. Hellbelly are here to stay.

The witness - www.monolith.gr

Svenska HELLBELLY gör som många andra musiker nuförtiden och släpper sin fullängdare alldeles på egen hand. Det brukar ha sina fördelar men även en del nackdelar. Visst är det kul att det kommer fram musik som inte bolagen vågar satsa på, men allt som oftast får ljudet stryka lite på foten när den egna plånboken skall öppnas och just det sistnämnda kännetecknar ”What Would Satan Do?”. Jag skulle önska mig en bättre ljudbild på denna cd, tyngden finns där men ändå inte på något konstigt sätt, det känns stundvis för mycket demoproduktion om det hela. Men med en saftigare produktion hade bandets tunga metall blivit giftig. Gillar helt klart att bandet fått till ett skönt sväng och ett häftigt driv till sin annars ganska stela metall. Just stelheten och de blytunga gitarrpartierna får mig att tänka på allt gitarrguden Tommy Victor tagit i, och då inte minst hans egna band PRONG. Men även spår från nyare DANZIG (med herr Victor i sättningen) gör sig påminda.

Daniel Eriksson - www.metalnyheter.se