Review of the Album "Hellcome" by Portuguese Thrash Metal Band Speedemon

Speedemon is the name of a band that the majority of us have never even heard of. This is a thrash metal band from Lisbon, Portugal.

I hear at least early on influences ranging from 1994 era Amorphis to even more modern influences such as Finland’s Brainthrash. The modern era of thrash metal which might be since 2000 has seen a major rise in the amount of thrash metal bands that have been so creative that their melodies and technique have risen to levels that Metallica and Megadeth could probably never have foreseen.

The vocals are so clear that we don’t even need to see the lyrics to try and figure out what is going on here. This album starts with the short intro called Army of the Doomed which also has narrative about the horrors of warfare. Legion of Fools has very good guitar work and the sound of this band is very much a modern one. They are adapting to the times which is very important even for music. “Thunderball” appropriately enough starts with the sound of thunder and rain before the song speeds up. The song is about trying to rid ourselves of our past demons that are haunting us and really holding us back. The bass guitar work reminds me of the beginning of the song called Die Right by Brainthrash. “Atrocity Divine” is a song that questions the actions of a God that some may say does not even exist. Lyrically the song is trying to say what God is this. The god that the song mentions is not much better than Christians may say. “Wall of Pain” is a song that lyrically tells us that the price that we must ultimately pay for our mistakes is the price of having to die for them. “Kings of the Road” lyrically tells the story of a very evil and chaotic situation as there are demons on the road. The lead guitar in this song is absolutely terrific! There is a song called 1974 and like the majority of this album, it is played at a fast pace but the main riff is pretty darn good! To conclude this brilliant thrash metal album is the instrumental song called Ride the Skulls. I really see no boring or off moment from these Portuguese guys and this is one heck of a debut thrash metal album! We forgot to mention the song called Road to Madness. This is a song about a man that walks through the darkness as there is a time for war and revenge.