Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
You could be forgiven for thinking that Hellion had disappeared into the 21st Century ether. Like many of their compatriots and contemporaries from what now seems like a time in which has been dwarfed by the subversion of music as a television entertainment procedure for advertising revenue rather than expression of deep down and dirty demands from a disenfranchised society, Hellion haven’t really hit the sweetest of spots in the genre of late.
All that should change with the release of their mini album, the outrageously good Karma’s A Bitch which is out this October.
It might be a bit forward to call Karma a bi**h, after all she is only doing her job in keeping a level playing field between the wronged and those who seemingly take great pleasure in causing others mental or physical heartache and pain, however when it comes down it, when the dust has settled and the tallies taken, perhaps that sometimes elusive mistress is exactly that, a full grade, a wonderfully decked out, suited and booted grade A bi**h and throughout the five songs on offer by Hellion, and perhaps arguably most of all by the superb Ann Boleyn who has never lost her vocal appeal in many fan’s eyes, Karma is one in which should be saluted often, have her backside kissed frequently and when the time comes, hope she is on your side in the fight.
Five songs might seem on the side of lacking in quantity department when it comes to other group’s output. Thankfully quantity should be taken with enormous pinch of sea salt and dipped in an abundance of vinegar, a group could put out three albums in the space of a couple of months, doesn’t make it big, clever or especially that great to listen to. More times than not, it just feels desperate, a musical wave of “I have had way too many thoughts in my head and couldn’t filter them down properly”, that comes tumbling down the ears.
For Hellion, the five songs, Betrayer, the album title track, Hell Has No Fury, Watch The City Burn and Rockin’ Till The End are brutal, coy, demandingly assured and push Rock/Metal back to where even where Greek legend Sisyphus might have stood an even chance of getting his job done. Much must be said for the power of perseverance, for not allowing Time to get the better of a very cool group and one that in their leading lady, shows that luck has no place in such things, coincidence is a bystander still licking ice cream off its hands, Karma, that beautiful feeling, is everything.
Ian D. Hall