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Sometimes there’s a fine line between great and mediocre riffs. With their “Black Painted Circle” EP, Hell’s Island tend to showcase the former…..for most of the time, anyway.

 

With one foot firmly in the Grunge genre, the band seems inspired by bands such as Soundgarden, System Of A Down and Tool. It’s a genre that puts me off, to be quite honest, one overpopulated by bands sounding tormented for torment’s sake. Yet Hell’s Island manage to pull the metaphorical strings of the metalhead within me. But let’s take a closer look at this release…..

 

The 4 tracks on offer have hooks and groove in abundance. Roberto Negrini has a powerful and intense voice. And the production is top-notch. I particularly enjoyed the Progressive component of the music even though sometimes the tempo breaks fall flat. A similar inconsistency occurs with the singing: Roberto is great when he sounds angry but his mellow verses are sometimes a tad insipid.

 

Despite its brevity, the release is littered with inspired moments. For example the staccato riffs that open ‘Opaque Solo’ are awesome, towards the end of the same song is a mellow passage that is soulful and intense and the outro of ‘G.O.D. (Guilty of dying)’ has all the instruments playing in unison to create a powerful and menacing ambience.

 

So all in all this is a solid release from a promising band. I had some gripes with the pacing of the compositions but all the members are evidently talented and creative.

 

Hell’s Island have released this EP by themselves so check out their Bandcamp page – the band deserves all the support they can get.

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