Hell Tracks – Hell Tracks

Hell Tracks is a Brazilian thrash metal band that released only one self-titled demo in 1996. That's all I know about them. There's so little information about them that most people doubt they even existed. No one even has the real demo cover. I'm pretty sure someone took the cover of some shitty book, put it up with the demo on some download site and said, “Yeah, that'll do.” Does that look like a real demo cover to you? It doesn't to me. It looks like a fucking book cover. Okay, let's stop ranting about the cover and just review this shit already.

Since there are only two songs on this demo there's not much to cover, so I'll try to pad this out as much as possible. To be honest, when I pushed play, I expected this to be a putrid piece of shit that featured indecipherable production and atrocious musicianship, but it turned out to be really good. The production is really nice and clear for a demo. It has enough grittiness to be enjoyable, but they make sure to not add so much grittiness that it sounds like a box of gravel banging around in a washing machine.

The music is pretty sweet as well. The drums do your standard mid-paced beats. Pretty standard stuff, but they're still performed well. They also throw in some double bass and a few fills for good measure. What I really like is how prominent the bass is. Sometimes it likes to peak its head above the guitars and add a unique flavor to the rest of the music. The vocals consist of a hoarse shout that sound quite similar to what was popular in California. Again, pretty standard, but they still sound great. Best of all are the guitars. The riffs are fast, galloping, and well-structured. Sure, it's not anything original, but it still sounds excellent. I especially love the solos. The guy's fingers dance all over the fretboard and offer up a performance that gives me an eargasm.

So, yeah. Even though the album cover looks more like a book cover, the music inside consists of awesome thrash metal. Sure, they're not reinventing the genre or anything like that, but they still put on a strong and infectious performance. I guess it still holds true that you can't judge a book- er, demo by its cover.