progressive death metal / horror metal
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I always like it when a band seems to be influenced more by art and literature than by other bands. It gives the whole something unique, certainly something with a decent story to tell. In this case, it's a decent horror story, accompagnied with an array of metal styles, guaranteed to make you either dance, headbang or pulverize a bunch of zombies with a lawnmower. Either way, I think you'll have quite a good time with this little gem.
I don't think you'll be extremely surprised when I say that Banned From Hell is an Italian band. After all, Italy is one of the biggest producers of sick and twisted horror, both in music and in movies. The band formed in 2010, in order to combine their love for metal with their addiction to horror sounds. In 2015, the line-up was completed. An ep was released and the band shared the stage with acts like Rotting Christ, Cattle Decapitation, Hate and many more.
But before you simply place these guys into the death metal camp, beware that their sound is quite a bit different from most bands in there. Of course you get some brutal vocals, grunts and screams, often nudging towards the entire grindcore scene. You also get face smashing riffs and testicle flattening drums (see, I'm already getting into the horror theme). But Banned From Hell also comes up with a brilliant keyboards.
Musically, the band constantly switched between gothic horror music, fierce death metal, progressive metal and industrial. It's a bit as if The Vision Bleak, In Flames, At The Gates, Stratovarius, Opeth and Therion wrote a soundtrack for a Dario Argento movie. That culminated in a bunch of massively surprising and immersive songs, headlining in 'I'm Not Abstract', 'Murder Validation' and 'Amigdala'.
And there's all the elements and references I heard but didn't describe yet. Throughout the entire album, I've been thinking about all of the aforementioned bands and genres, but there's way more that ran through my mind, from Van Halen & Europe to The Dresden Dolls and The Kovenant. Needless to say that this is quite a varied album which never ceases to surprise the listener. Highly recommended stuff for fans of all things extreme...
​Serge
I don't think you'll be extremely surprised when I say that Banned From Hell is an Italian band. After all, Italy is one of the biggest producers of sick and twisted horror, both in music and in movies. The band formed in 2010, in order to combine their love for metal with their addiction to horror sounds. In 2015, the line-up was completed. An ep was released and the band shared the stage with acts like Rotting Christ, Cattle Decapitation, Hate and many more.
But before you simply place these guys into the death metal camp, beware that their sound is quite a bit different from most bands in there. Of course you get some brutal vocals, grunts and screams, often nudging towards the entire grindcore scene. You also get face smashing riffs and testicle flattening drums (see, I'm already getting into the horror theme). But Banned From Hell also comes up with a brilliant keyboards.
Musically, the band constantly switched between gothic horror music, fierce death metal, progressive metal and industrial. It's a bit as if The Vision Bleak, In Flames, At The Gates, Stratovarius, Opeth and Therion wrote a soundtrack for a Dario Argento movie. That culminated in a bunch of massively surprising and immersive songs, headlining in 'I'm Not Abstract', 'Murder Validation' and 'Amigdala'.
And there's all the elements and references I heard but didn't describe yet. Throughout the entire album, I've been thinking about all of the aforementioned bands and genres, but there's way more that ran through my mind, from Van Halen & Europe to The Dresden Dolls and The Kovenant. Needless to say that this is quite a varied album which never ceases to surprise the listener. Highly recommended stuff for fans of all things extreme...
​Serge
