A HILL TO DIE UPON, describe themselves as a blackened deathmetal band, I can add to that that they are a Christian Blackened deathmetal band, and even in today’s scene that’s still a rather the exception to the rule. Holy despair is the third album by this US outfit, and let it be clear that from the first notes from opener “Cloven hoofs hava nagila“ up to and including closer “Satan speaks”, these guy’s prove that they score above average where the quality of songs and sound production is concerned (protools and drum triggers no doubt but still…) . Personally I am not that impressed with the faster tracks ( blastbeats) on Holy despair, as this tends to take away the power of the actual riffs going on in the background.. “a jester…” to name one proves this. I do appreciate those tracks where the band slows things down a bit and opts for groove and simple effective shredding example being “Nekyia” and “Somme” being the one that really sticks out.