Black Mass, released in 2011, represents the culmination of This Is Hell’s metallic trajectory. The New York band pushes to its end the logic begun on its previous records, delivering its darkest, fastest and most extreme album. The hardcore of the early days is now but a distant memory: enter a ferocious thrash metal, tinged with darkness and nihilism, that makes no concessions. It is the record of a band that decided to follow its musical convictions all the way, even at the risk of surprising those who discovered it with its first hardcore firebombs.
The black mass
The title states its intent: Black Mass cultivates a dark, almost occult atmosphere, where speed and violence serve a deliberately extreme aesthetic. The riffs are of a relentless thrash aggression, the tempos frantic, and the whole gives off a darkness that contrasts with the more luminous energy of the early days. This Is Hell here fully embraces the fiercest metal, without restraint or compromise. It is a plunge into the shadows, carried out with total conviction and a technical mastery that never falters.
Speed and fury
Musically, Black Mass is probably the band’s fastest and most technical record. The songs chain together at a frantic pace, carried by precise, incisive guitar work and a relentless rhythm section. This Is Hell demonstrates impressive instrumental ease here, able to sustain extreme tempos without ever losing clarity or impact. That outpouring of energy and technique makes the record an intense, demanding experience, granting the listener no respite from start to finish.
The culmination of a transformation
Black Mass logically concludes the band’s evolution, fully owning its metal identity. That radical choice inevitably divides: hardcore purists may miss the fire of the origins, while thrash fans will find a formidable record. But one cannot deny the coherence of the approach, nor the sincerity of a band that followed its instinct to the end. It is the work of an outfit that refused to freeze, even at the cost of transforming radically.
Black Mass is an extreme, uncompromising record, the culmination of a mutation begun several years earlier. Darker, faster and more metal than anything This Is Hell had produced before, it testifies to a band that took its vision all the way, heedless of expectations. For fans of intense thrash and metallic hardcore pushed to its furthest limits, it is a powerful conclusion, proof that a band can completely reinvent itself without ever betraying its demand or its intensity.
