Superchrist

Hell's Headbangers has been busting out a few surprises lately and this latest from Chicago, IL's Superchrist (their sixth full-length!) is certainly a surprise for the label known for the crudest black thrash and evil Satanic blackened death metal out there today. Superchrist are full-on old school trad metal, with a heaping dose of Lemmy swagger and lots of old-school metal melodies. Lyrically, the terrain is familiar ― song titles like "Take Me to the Graveyard" and "Beer Metal" speak for themselves ― and, musically, there's no surprises once past the initial shock that this is a HHR release. Here's the rub: even tunes like the aforementioned "Graveyard" may sound absurd at first and promise nothing but insane, drunken revelry, but there's songwriting skill on display, those melodies promising to worm their way into the listener's brain in a big way, which is pretty cool indeed. A very fun album, especially if you happen to be male, in your 30s and enjoy drinking beer and reminiscing about Metal Massacre 2 or some shit.