Hell United – Aura Damage (2012)

Arriving on our latest promo pack from one the most brutal labels in the planet, Hellthrasher Productions, today we have Hell United and their sophomore release “Aura Damage”. Hailing from Poland, our first impression of this band was that they are as crushing as their fellow countrymen Behemoth. Delivering 35-minutes of high-octane Blackened Death Metal, this band is sure to turn a few heads and snap more than enough necks in the moshpit.

Dominating since the opening track, “Aural Damage” is off to an excellent and very violent attack with “Red Limitations”. The riffing is hyper-intense, the drumming is super crushing, and the vocals are as demonic as Behemoth’s, so you know what you can expect from this relatively unknown outfit. The band does a great job in shuffling things around so the songs don’t sound like copies of each other, a problem that has blamed Behemoth in the last few years. The neck snapping action continues with the anthems of destruction: “Apostle of Plague”, “Deathlike Cold”, and “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie”.

There is a bit of a shift in the atmosphere with the sluggish “Hinterdland”. This atmospheric piece is quite decent, but it kind of kills the flow of such a devastating album. The good thing is that the band returns with two brutal track immediately afterwards. We particularly enjoyed the slowdowns of “In Odore Sanctitatis”, something that also gets transferred into the closing track “Totality of I”. Said song is by far our favorite track of the album since it combined brutal sections with a few slower and more melodic and atmospheric elements, a bit different from the rest of the album, but a very solid track indeed.

Showing great levels of promise and ability to craft solid tracks, Hell United is one of those bands that you need to keep an eye out for. If you like brutal music that has that underlying melodic foundation that allows the songs to never get repetitive and dull, then “Aura Damage” is the album for you. Be prepared to bow to the band’s very aggressive and devastating style.

Release: September 11th, 2012

Genre: Black/Death Metal

Country: Poland