When Black Anvil released their debut album Time Insults The Mind, I was enormously surprised; the positive way! The band was formed in New York City with members who were active in the NYHC-scene (the founding members were active in Kill Your Idols, for example), but Black Anvil’s 2008-debut had nothing to do with Hardcore whatsoever. And what’s more, their thrashing and Doom / Death-injected Black Metal truly was of a very high quality. 2010’s Triumvirate, the band’s debut for Relapse, was little different, yet also a monument in most aspects. Within the very same vein is Black Anvil’s third full length, Hail Death, recorded with engineer / producer J. Robbins (who worked in the studio with the likes of Coliseum, Wino, Against Me!, The Sword, Clutch etc.), and with assistance of newly recruited guitar player Sos.
Hail Death lasts for more than seventy minutes (!!!), but what this quartet (Paul Delaney-b, v; Gary Bennett-g, v; Raeph Glicken-d, v; and new guitar player Sos) brings with this album does not bore one single minute, not one single second. The focus still lies on firm, grim and morbid Black Metal, with inclusion of elements from Death, Doom and Thrash Metal. The approach is more modernised than before; now and then there are modest hints of Metalcore-oriented details (you do appreciate it or you do not), and the old schooled vibe has been replaced by a rather timeless approach. I even dare to say that this record is the most closely-related effort to the band’s pre-Black Anvil-roots (and then I am referring to, for example, the anthemic group-choir-screams-stuff in several songs). Black Anvil still focus on a qualitative symbiosis of groove and melody, and that’s been performed just fine. And more than before, the band even experiments with additional sounds and tempo-changes (with a couple of unexpected hooks - yet for sure not of the avant-garde-kind); sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. There are other elements that you might appreciate, or not, like the addition of acoustic guitar intros, the band’s own interpretation of punky anger, etc.
One remark: this band often gets compared to Dissection. I do not fully disagree, but there are fundamental differences for sure. Goatwhore might be another comparison, which is more fitting, I think. …just to give you an idea…