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Living Death -Vengeance Of Hell cd

69.00kr149.00kr

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Description

2007 re-issue with one bonus track

Living Death formed around 1980 around the core lineup of Reiner Kelch on guitars and Dieter Kelch on bass. After adding vocalist Thorsten ‘Toto’ Bergmann, guitarist Frank Fricke and drummer Frank Schubring, Living Death set about raising hell in their hometown Velbert, more noted for its disco scene. Some demos caught the attention of various labels, and in 1983 Living Death were signed to Earthshaker records. Just before the recording of their first album, Schubring departed, leaving Living Death to record their first album with a session drummer Eric. Living Death’s first effort was released the year after. What we find on this debut is some rather standard heavy/speed metal very much in the vein of Accept and Motorhead. Most of the songs are quick slices of speed metal, in particular You And Me, Living Death and My Victim. They also have a few AC/DC style midpaced crunchers, most notably Night Light. A definite highlight would be Heavy Metal Hurricane, which seems to carry an intensity not found in the other cuts. The guitarists (who would ‘secretly’ become members of progressive thrashers Mekong Delta) work well together, locking in tightly and providing some aggressive rhythm work. A better representation of their style is in the instrumental Labyrinth, where they peel off an aggressive downpicked rhythm similar to that of Anthrax’s Belly Of The Beast. Dieter Kelch is quite hard to hear in the mix, but seems to follow the guitars for the most part. Eric plays it safe for the most part here, laying down a beat and not really going for too many fills. He uses quite a bit of double-bass here and there, and gets a short drum solo in Night Light, which does the job well. The thing that seems to have upset non Living Death fans most is the vocalist Thorsten Bergmann. His vocals come across as a cleaner and far less powerful version of Udo Dirkschneider and his falsetto is a weaker King Diamond but on the other hand for many its Totos vocals that are Living Death. One of my favourite tracks are Hellpike too bad thought that the intro one of the guitars is buried, which makes it sound weak. Overall this is a very enjoyable album and a track like ‘Riding A Virgin’ in particular, but maybe for the wrong reason.

Track listing:
1. You and Me
2. Living Death
3. Nightlight
4. My Victim
5. Labyrinth
6. Heavy Metal Hurricane
7. Hellpike
8. Riding a Virgin
9. Vengeance of Hell
10. Watch Out

Additional information

Label

War Hymns

Release Year

Catalogue Number

WAR 007