Hell Militia - Last Station on the Road to Death (2010)

Relentless and unpretentious are two words that immediately came to our minds when writing this review about Hell Militia’s latest effort “Last Station on the Road to Death”. The band features a wide variety of well-known Black Metal musicians of the ever growing French scene, and deserves worldwide attention because of their down-to-the-roots approach to mid-tempo Black Metal that will crush your soul after just a few minutes.

After their powerful 2005 debut album “Canonisation of the Foul Spirit”, the band showed potential, but the elements were not completely aligned for them. Now, the band shows more musical maturity and a bigger focus on creating a nihilistic sound that never relies on 1000 bmp assaults or cheesy elements to create a sober atmosphere that Black Metal has been characteristic of in its early days.

Before you start thinking that this will sound very Scandinavian, you are completely on the wrong path. Featuring members of Antaeus, Temple of Baal, Arkhon Infaustus, etc. the band has a nice French BM ring to it that graces all 9 tracks (minus the flow-killing punk cover “Shoot Knife Strangle Beat & Crucify”). And while most people will argue that there is nothing revolutionary about this band, we rather focus on the quality of the songs crafted for this release.

Starting off with a somewhat cheesy intro, the band quickly gets down to business with “Born Without Light”, a very diabolical feeling song that features powerful riffs, brutal drumming assaults, and very crushing vocals. This creates a very chaotic atmosphere that brilliantly sets the mood for this release. While most songs have a mid-tempo pace (when compared to other BM bands), they craft very dark and effective passages into the BM underworld worthy of any big-name (or big-reputation) BM band of the scene.

The crushing guitar riffing is very brutal and creates the perfect atmosphere, and even on the ‘slower’ parts, the guitar distortion greatly contributes to the freezing cold atmosphere of this release. The ‘hyper-fast’ sections are very well mixed in the songs and change the tempo of songs very nicely into ‘brutal assaults’ rather than mid-tempo BM. But these sections are never overused and do not give the feeling of being choked by brutality without substance.

Even in songs like “The Ultimate Deception” and “The Pig That Became a God”, the band crafts powerful sections that build momentum and suddenly explode in all directions. We don’t think that this album could get any better in terms of dark guitar-fueled atmosphere, with mournful vocals laid on top and very tight drumming.

Overall, while not the most original release in the world, “Last Station on the Road to Death” is a very soul-crushing release that will have you on your knees begging for more once it’s over.

Release: October 12th, 2010

Country: France