HELLWELL
'Beyond
The Boundaries Of Sin'
(Shadow
Kingdom Records / High Roller Records)
This
is a side band of Mark "The Shark" Shelton, the singer of
the mighty Manilla Road. Hellwell is definitely
different than Manilla Road, much more punchy and dramatic. In
fact, to be quite honest for my tastes it is overly dramatic. It sort
of feels like Shelton wanted to write an exaggerated musical stage
play, that is the feeling I get listening to 'Beyond The
Boundaries Of Sin'. I mean, do not get me wrong, there are some
fantastic sections and some quality music on here. Just the style and
direction he took that material does not tickle my fancy, so to
speak. The vocals follow suit with the music, they are pretty
animated with real emphasis certain parts of each sentence, coming
off sounding very staged and theatrical dialogue influenced to me.
Think of a metal soundtrack to 'Phantom of The Opera' or
something like that. Also there is a lot of punctuated for maximum
flair keyboards (and some Hammond organ) use which also contributes
that feeling. I don't know, some parts of tracks I really kind of dig
here and there, but as a whole it is just not working for me. There
is no doubting the talent that is behind this album though. I think
Shelton was going for a real horror vibe, but missed the mark a
little bit if this is supposed to sound really evil or creepy, it is
more of a 'Dark Shadows' TV show melodrama atmosphere, rather than
being bone chilling and malevolent. The production and everything is
top notch, nothing to complain about technically or with regards to
execution. I guess it is all boils down to do you like stuff like
dark and over the top stage plays and metal mixed float your boat?
Not mine it is sinking rapidly, time to push stop and move on to the
next review.
(Dale Roy)
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