The Hell are a hardcore punk band from Cleveland, Ohio.
Earlier this month the band put out their debut, self-titled EP on Drunken Sailor Records. It’s 10 tracks long, and yet it clocks in at a mere 13 minutes. It’s streaming on their label’s Bandcamp, where you can also order the album on vinyl.
Based on the short length of the album compared to the number of tracks, you’ve probably figured out that this is a collection of very short songs. In fact, only two tracks on the entire album are longer than 90 seconds long. It’s fast and furious, exactly the way hardcore punk should be. “Pistol Grip” kicks things off with a simple guitar riff that carries the song as the furious drumming give the song that hardcore feel. The vocals are as sloppy and angry, as you’d expect. Then “Bloodstains in the Boardroom”—whose title one can only assume is a bizarre allusion to Ani DiFranco’s “Blood in the Boardroom”—is the shortest track on the whole album and packs a lot of hardcore fury into a lean 48 seconds.
“One More Thing” is the album’s longest song, lasting one minute 50 seconds, but it is nonetheless as hardcore and blazing as the rest of the tracks on this record. “What a Laugh” closes off the album with snarling, angry vocals that harken back to the best songs from the Descendents. Any fan of classic, fast bursts of hardcore needs to check out this really fun album.
The album is also available on the Drunken Sailor Records website. Keep up with the label on Facebook and Twitter for more updates about this and other awesome bands.
