Review of the Album Evil Forces Arise by the One Man Thrash Metal Band Hellrot

Evil Forces Arise is the one man solo project by the band Hellrot. He is from Tijuana, Mexico. We can’t really call this a band because everything is done by the person that goes by the name of Tony Rot.

The Intro (Away from the Gods) though is a respectable song to start off this album and it is largely of an acoustic nature. The song gets distorted though a bit later on and it sounds like 1980’s Megadeth. The title track lyrically is about black magic, opening up the gates of hell, Satanism, and then the vocals are so rough and bad that they are hard to understand. Devil’s Rock n’ Roll is a rocking, heavy song that lyrically is pretty easy to explain. If Tony was trying to be as good as King Diamond, he has not even come close. I can’t quite figure out whether he really has Satanic beliefs or whether the whole album is written as a joke for entertainment purposes. The album sounds to me as if it was forced and there really wasn’t enough quality time to spend to make the production fit in with the times. Since the disbandment of the band Buried Dreams, other than the thrash metal band Tulkas, I really don’t know of any other Mexican thrash metal bands. This Hellrot project contains VERY poor production for the times, bad vocals that sound like the person may be drunk or they are just drowned out and the lyrical content focuses too much on a subject that is very morbid. One thing that is accurate about the solo project is the album’s cover which has a monster that looks like the Minotaur, the bull-like monster in Ancient Greece. As I begin to really hear the music on Evil Forces Arise, the album is worse musically than The Great Southern Trendkill. Even if the solos on this album aren’t so bad, the vocals also ruin this album “The Reaper” lyrically refers to the monster “death” and it can cause nightmares. The riffs repeat themselves too much. Children of Bodom used the image of the reaper on their album covers and at least, they were able to create music that was creative and skillful. “Whiskey Hard Rock n’ Rollers” tells the story of a man that just wants to smoke, drink, and have fun with his friends.

Other than the first song on this album, Evil Forces Arise is a solo project that lacks substance, creativity or that “wow” factor that make thrash metal albums worth listening to. (Intro) Away From the Gods has a riffing section after the softer parts that is good but how does the rest of this project sound like in 2020? Other than the first song, the solo in the song Voices of Hell is decent too. However, the dirty production is what really hurts this album.