And by “a man,” Harry means a group of men that call themselves Black Anvil.
Hail Death, the band’s third full length, is a prime example of a band biting off way more than their jaws can handle. The combination of black metal, simplistic thrash, and slightly bro-ish hardcore groove would hint that there is some identity crisis at play here, but in truth it is ability, not identity, that is the real issue. When you combine the unrefined performances, a tendency to stretch largely stock material light years beyond its limit, a slightly raw production that achieves nothing but a poor tom sound, and an insane runtime, getting to even halftime is laborious.
Take opener “Still Reborn.” At over nine minutes, it would imply material of an epic and profound nature, but because it is composed of largely rudimentary elements, it never comes close to the kind of weight that would justify such scope. From the generic chug riffs and lazy blasts to the stiff tremolo work and very questionable clean vocals, it fails at being more than the sum of its mediocre parts in an almost modern-day Metallica way.
Likewise for the rest of the album. If including the unnecessary (but strangely listenable) cover of Kiss’ “Under the Rose” (yup, they chose a song from “The Elder”), the album comes in at a whopping 72 minutes. And because much of the material is so unnaturally stretched in some ill-advised attempt at “deep” songwriting, it feels even longer. Nowhere on Hail Death does Black Anvil just attack and go for the jugular. Instead, they always take unnecessary tangents that blunt what could be – at least in a few cases – some pretty decent songs. “N” almost achieves some quality doom groove, but falls apart with nu aspects and a heavy handed finish. The already-too-long-and-disjointed “Seven Stars Unseen” really outdoes itself with a coda that tries desperately to inject the tune with an eleventh hour sense of dynamics, but only causes further confusion.
Even the goodish songs are held back by the bloated tendencies. The speedy “My Hate Is Pure” almost provides a Woe-esque shot in the arm, but even at only five minutes still finds a way to feel long. The groovy and admittedly addictive “Until the End” pulls off a pretty admirable mid-paced Down-esque jammy stomp, but at times falls prey to more of those passionless clean vocals.
Despite all of this, there is an odd charm to be found within parts of Hail Death, if only because of Black Anvil’s palpable naivety. They must truly believe that this is just as weighty and enlightened as the song lengths would imply. So if only for their stubborn lack of self-awareness, they deserve a tip of the cap. And in all fairness, it would take a mighty talented band to pull off this mix of rocking, blasting, thudding, faux progging, and occasional pontificating. Black Anvil just can’t quite keep up with their own ambitions.
