Published on Mar 8, 2000
Here’s three words you probably never thought you’d see put
together. Ready? Here goes, say it with me: Japanese death
metal.
There now, wasn’t that fun?
In all actuality, Hellchild’s latest release,
Bareskin, has some very enjoyable moments, but in the end
falls prey to the same pitfalls that bedevil (oops, wrong choice of
words for this genre) most death metal. First, the sound becomes
very formulatic, especially disturbing because this album is just
over a half-hour in length. Second, it doesn’t matter whether
they’re singing in English, Japanese or Lebanese; I can’t
understand a damned thing they’re saying, even with the lyric
sheet. (Counterpoint: sometimes, not knowing what they’re saying
tends to cast a more ominous shadow over the music. If that’s the
way you like it, that’s fine with me.)
The band – vocalist Tsukasa Harakawa, guitarist Elichiro Suzuki,
bassist Yasuo Satoh and drummer Junichi Harashima – is interesting
to listen to at the start of
Bareskin, and not because of their nationaty. Instead, they
capture the liseer with some wonderful musicanship on tracks like
“Self-Scorn,” “In This Freezing Night” and “The Answer”. The first
half of the disc is enough to make someone regain interest in this
genre.
But where Hellchild has its difficulty is in keeping the sound
fresh. By the time you get to tracks like “Escape,” “Single Color
Of Myself” and “Acceptance,” you almost find yourself wishing that
the band would do something different. In all fairness, they do
answer the challenge with a different vocal style on “Another Kind
Of Bravery”.
Now, in all fairness, Hellchild is not death metal in the truest
sense of the words, but neither are they your typical
run-of-the-mill metal band. With a lyric sheet that will make you
think if you take the time to read it, Hellchild proves that they
will be a band to watch in the future. If only they could keep
injecting new twists into their music to keep the listener on their
toes.
Bareskin is a disc that should get you interested in the
death metal genre if you’ve spent some time away from it, but
Hellchild still has yet to achieve perfection with their craft. But
at least they’re on the right path.