Tag Archives: Hellripper

JIM GHEDI x HELLRIPPER

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HIGH-VOLTAGE NEW SINGLE ‘THE HUNGRY CHILD’ FROM JIM GHEDI. CORONACH UNLEASHED BY HELLRIPPER

The omens were always there. When Jim Ghedi played in Hathersage, it was as a two-person set-up with Owen Spafford on fiddle in a 50-capacity venue. The songs were stripped down but in the gig review I scribbled that ‘Wasteland… could easily explode into sprawling, riotous dissonance with the wrong (right?) band behind it.’

Speculative wishes granted, peoples – The Hungry Child is that very thing: a cacophonous electrification of a harrowing tale.

It starts with fiddle-and-drone and downwards bend, like the Whole Lotta Love left-right speaker pan by way of a hulking wartime bomber, which sets the mood to bleak as Ghedi sings the tale of ‘the hungry child’, based on a German poem from the early 19th century.

It’s a lean start, musically – after the drone, it’s Ghedi’s voice and fiddle that leads us. But a storm soon brews as his no-bullshit band emerges to flesh out the sound into a marching doom shanty while strings and choir (?) shoot for transcendence in a Thee Silver Mt Zion way, switching from rigidity to shamanic chaos over a filthy bass grind.

Hearing Jim Ghedi and crew crank it up like this is pure joy, if that’s the right word for such a forlorn slab of downer folk. Sunshine music it is not, so save it for the greyest, most barren of wind-whipped days and steel your heart for the poem’s end. Sink into it right here.

On stage, The Hungry Child should be a beast so let’s hope Ghedi and crew play it when the UK tour kicks off at Hebden Bridge Trades Club this very week on Thursday 18th June. Me, I’ll be at The Strines Nightingale the day after. Cannot wait. Tour dates here.

OK then, time for a different kind of grim: Hellripper.

If you don’t know, Hellripper is the irresistibly OTT speed-thrash-black metal brainchild of one-man studio riot, James McBain. The latest album, Coronach, came out in March and it fully rips (sorry), just like its predecessors – but the maniacal Hellripper blueprint is evolving.

For this album, McBain has added bagpipes, vocal range, violin and even (no fckn way) piano (whaaaat?) to Hellripper’s hot-wired black-speed frenzy and they all enhance the vision without losing heat from the molten goatcult core. Title track Coronach – a 9-minute linear epic that cruises with mid-tempo anthemics, classic metal licks and furious pace injections – showcases a progressive musical narrative that rarely circles back to verse-chorus regularity. Hunderprest, meanwhile, shreds with riffage that’s Rust-in-Peace tight while Voivod-ian motifs chill the air a notch. Ferocious blastbeat action and riffy hooks are never far away.

Perhaps a bigger difference on this latest album is that McBain’s Scottish culture and folklore references get a higher profile. They’re dark and macabre, same as they ever were – witchery, vampires, sacrifice, body-snatching – and they’ve always informed his lyrics but here, they’re more often elevated to song titles like these (info cribbed from McBain’s own Coronach liner notes):

Coronach – an improvised song for the dead, traditionally played at funerals
Baobhan Sith – a female vampire of the forests of the Highlands
Mortercheyn – the disease spread by Nuckelavee, a demon from Orkney folklore

And:

Blakk Satanik Fvkkstorm

Er…

Anyway, check Coronach for metallic extremes and extremely high-speed feelgoods.

Black and blue metal

IS IT JUST ME OR…

…is there common ground between Jim Ghedi and Hellripper? Both dig, in different ways, into culture, place and people, both bring the past to the present, both forge a distinct aesthetic, and both are gaining popularity in their scenes.

They should tour together.

No doubt this is a ridiculous and shallow observation from someone who knows nothing about their respective worlds, but can you imagine a co-headlining trek of our craggier outposts??? That would be something else. Heavy folk dread and Celtic kult-metal mutation – yes please.

A few more entry-level words on Hellripper right here

MIDWIFE – Rock n Roll Never Forgets: TRACK OF THE MONTH

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DECEMBER REWIND: MANIAC THRASH, OCCULT-ISH FUZZ, METALCORE LOUNGE AND MORE

Welcome to the last Rewind of 2024 – not that there have been many to digest this year. What was once a monthly (give or take) post has slipped shamefully close to a flatline with occasional blips indicating ‘life’.

But, like a tortoise on an uphill grind into a tarmac-scraping headwind, we carry on. ’tis the season of goodwill and joy after all so the least we can do is share some new discoveries before the Xmas madness intoxicates. ONWARD. Slowly…

HELLRIPPER – Fork-Tongued Messiah

Nothing slow about this though, the most recent new blood from every metaller’s favourite Highlander. The track came out in August but it’s the bleak end of the year where such two-minute mayhem makes most sense, not just because the days are literally darker but also because Hellripper takes you back to times of youthful innocence when Kill ’em All and Killing is My Business ruled your fledgling earwaves and Bathory stoked fearful fascination. No stylistic breakaways at this point, thank satan – just riotous escapism at maximum speed. ALL HAIL.

EARTH TONGUE – Bodies Dissolve Tonight!

On Bodies Dissolve Tonight!, Earth Tongue – from Wellington, New Zealand – add a chanty, gonzo spook vibe to some wickedly fuzz-rocking riffage. On the one hand, it’s got the primitive no-frills edge you’d expect from a two-piece. On the other, it dances with the sci-fi occult grooves of the late 60s and early 70s underground, thanks to Gussie Larkin’s staccato vocal delivery. You could easily imagine this on one of those box sets of unearthed now-cult gems like I’m a Freak, Baby… where bands like Wicked Lady, Iron Claw and Devil’s Teabag* spread dank cheer. Listen to Earth Tongue, then watch the video for beach-driving high jinx.

*not really

THEODOR KENTROS – Trystero

7 minutes of ambient doomgaze and looped layering, anyone? Grab those headphones. Downbeat in tempo but not in spirit, Theodor Kentros‘s Trystero exists as some kind of shapeshifting heavy vapour, slowly unfolding and expanding over your world. Sparse guitars echo like cinematic Mogwai teasing an impending onslaught but here, they pull back, making way for swollen enormo-drones and elemental clangs to reveal themselves. When those same guitar lines reappear and repeat cleaner, brighter and bigger, it’s like the day burst wide open. Immersion time.

TENUE – Union

It’s not hard to imagine a band playing Pelican-ised post metal with screamo vocals and black-metal blasts, and that’s a rough marker for what Tenue do on this track – nothing wrong with that. But the real loop they throw is the mellow jazzy breakdown which has no connection with the rage either side yet completely belongs, snapping your focus into attention by showcasing deft musicality and prog tendencies. Intriguing? File under Spanish Metalcore Loungecore. Or something. Check Union here.

MIDWIFE – Rock n Roll Never Forgets

Calexico, Giant Sand and assorted Americanas make for supreme winter listening if you find the right tracks, despite the warmth and dust in the origins of their sound. It’s all about the openness and isolation they conjure and this gentle, dronesome hush by Midwife does exactly the same thing. Madeline Johnston inhabits the monochrome zone where distorted whispers weave through pedal-steel caresses and buried strings. Devoid of all bluster or hard edges, it occupies a space that’s permanently in-between – locations, hours, states of consciousness, whatever you choose. Lo-fi ambience for late night drifters, low-light hibernators and want-to-be-aloners… keep it close when Christmas gets too loud. Rock n Roll Never Forgets.

And that’s that. Tyler the Creator‘s Noid (and video) was dynamite and then 2024 year-end listmania was unleashed. So we’d better leap on some of that

if tortoise catches a downhill break.

’til next time – MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Rewind Xmas
A rock-a rewind the Christmas tree

WINTRY METAL? TRY HELLRIPPER

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Is it too late for winter sounds and 2023 catch-ups? Probably. Then again, we’re not out of the darkness yet – not quite – and there’s still a stack of stormy gloom and wind chill to celebrate. For that, we need an unsunny soundtrack. And if a couple of moments from 2023 fit the bill, all the better.  

January/February is the year’s ultimate listening zone. Post-xmas hibernation means you can sink into those end-of-year lists and check what you missed (almost everything, it seems), spend a shiteload of time re-digging the old familiars that fit the season AND discover new-to-you old sounds that then become the foundation for winters future. It’s a cycle that repeats every year. Awesome.  

So, with icy blasts in mind, two albums leapt off the Metal Hammer end-of-year list.

HELLRIPPER – Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags

This is an absolute riot, a thrash ‘n roll explosion of blackened metal that pays homage to the old school – Metallica, Maiden, Motorhead, Bathory – but is fired by precocious Young Man Chops from the Highlands, Scotland. James McBain, aka Mr Hellripper, is pretty much a one-man studio band (sleeve notes: ‘Hellripper is: James McBain’) which means he shreds like a daemon at everything. Can you imagine eating breakfast with the guy? Cornflakes at 200bpm. Carnage.     

Anyway, back to the album and these words are more a reaction than a review because Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags puts such a demented headbanger smile on your face that you’ve just got to share the word with anyone who might not yet have found it. Solos blaze with melody through warp-speed thrash and black-metal throat while riffs groove and hook with anthemic potential. When Mester Stoor Worm closes the album down, it’s with an 8 and a half minute masterclass in epic metallic storytelling.

Disclaimer: it was actually Hellripper’s previous album, The Affair of the Poisons, that made the real first impression. After my must-order-Hellripper rush, Poisons was the fastest delivery. But I can say this: if you’re in for Poisons, you’re in for Warlocks. The Affair of the Poisons feels a shade more raw, Motorhead-ish/Kill ‘em All with Whiplash and Metal Militia vibes writ large. Warlocks Grim has classic speed/metal in its all-out attack but really, I haven’t got deep enough to know anything – too caught up in the frenetic energy, killer riffs and outlandish track titles (Goat Vomit Nightmare, Blood Orgy of the She-Devils, The Hissing Marshes, take your bloodied pick). Hellripper: a furious, glorious deathride. White knuckles mandatory.   

MYRKUR – Spine

Since dropping the Myrkur ball after Mareridt, the sight of Spine at #11 in the 2023 Metal Hammer list prompted a shameful wake-up. Myrkur is back? She sure is. And Spine brings all sides of Myrkur together into one. 

Spectral folk (Balfaerd), soft Scandi-pop choruses (Like Humans), melodic black-metal pace injections (Valkyriernes Sang), sweeping orchestral-vision (My Blood is Gold) and brooding goth-metal drama (Spine) are all present. Uniting every strand is, of course, Amalie Bruun’s ethereal vocals. Spine is her 33-minute musical tour through her new world of motherhood. 

As with the two Hellripper albums above, these words are only a reaction so no great finesse or vision, but excitability? Hell yeah. Next time you get slammed by snow drifts or chilled by subzero winds or blindsided by cold fog banks, reach for Myrkur or double up on Hellripper. Winter mood enhancers for sure.   

Hellripper: Warlocks Grim
Hellripper: Not at all grim