Year: 2024
Label: Metal Blade Records
Rating: 6,8 / 10
The Gustavsson brothers, having once again quarreled, scattered to different bands without releasing the promised new album of NIFELHEIM. While Eric is having a good time with a humble motorocker band CRANK, Per decided to play big: he joined the doomy gang FRIENDS OF HELL, sings heavy in DEAD KOSMONAUT, and with a project of his name, HELLBUTCHER, he flew up all the way to Metal Blade.
HELLBUTCHER's main problem could have been predicted without listening to a single minute of music. HELLBUTCHER is more or less the same NIFELHEIM; can you imagine NIFELHEIM on Metal Blade? Exactly. When working with their bands, all major metal labels today honor the legendary testament of "make it lame and gay", and of course no one made exceptions for HELLBUTCHER.
In form, everything is as it should be: ancient thrashing Black Metal about horned demons and horsemen of death, a wealth of diabolical guitar solo parts, infernal heat and 666 riffs to bang your head under. Tracks like "Possessed by The Devil's Flames" are timeless classics of the genre. But it's hard to believe that all this is for real. The sound, as expected, is licked to complete sterility, it's disgusting and lifeless. The songs do not offer anything interesting, but only repeat the old movements (they do that quite well, but still). Finally, there is no sincerity or otherworldly evil here. To make sure of this, put the grandiose “Envoy of the Lucifer” into your CD player. On the last (so far) NIFELHEIM album, Satan burned down, tore with his teeth and crushed to dust everything around him, flooding the sound space with fire and darkness. Not to mention that almost every track from "Envoy..." contained more talented solutions than the entire "Hellbutcher", and the analog sound was ten heads higher than the plastic fuckery that Per and his comrades are offering us today.
"Hellbutcher" can be listened to, you can even have some fun, but don't be fooled: this is a neutered NIFELHEIM, from which only the sound shell and part of the aesthetics remain. And, honestly, I'm not sure if there is any point in existence of this band.
English (UK) 
Крыўская