Hellfueled – Emission of Sins

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After a slightly disappointing, if matured, third album in 2007 which seemed to be treading water a little, Emission of Sins is a storming return to the big riffs of Born II Rock with the same hooks and instantly enjoyable songs. This probably has even better riffs than Born II Rock, and although is perhaps not quite as lyrically accomplished as Memories In Black, it is a lot more immediate. Every track is bursting with excellent guitar work and Andy Alkman’s ’80s period Ozzy vocals, and although the production is excellent, the mastering suffers a little from the “loudness” problem a lot of modern records suffer from (Google “loudness war”), which was particularly prevalent, and heavily publicised, on Metallica’s Death Magnetic. Nevertheless, hard-hitting riffs and soaring vocals are the order of the day on tracks like My Family And Satan, Where Angels Die and I’m The Crucifix, and all of them are guaranteed to be bigger live hits than the tracks from the previous album. Closing the disc with an instrumental was perhaps a mistake – it may have better served swapping places with Stone By Stone – but otherwise this is as solid as their first two efforts. Hopefully their fifth album will see them combine their rediscovered anthems with the mature direction of Memories In Black, and if they do, that will surely be the definitive Hellfueled album.

Written by Andy Lye
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