Review by Allan on June 19, 2002.

Spawning from members of Behemoth and Damnation, Hell-Born is your typical blackened death metal band. After reforming themselves in the middle of 2000, the band rehearsed intensely for what would be their debut album. As they say, practice makes perfect, but maybe the band should have done it a bit more. But, while “Hellblast” is an album that falls short on many areas, it’s a tolerable (only barely mind you) debut for this trio.

As I said, Hell-Born is a typical black/death metal band. Their music is mainly focused on death metal, while the lyrics of the band lay more in the field of black metal. Most of the ideas used on “Hellblast” are clichéd and have been derived from a derivative from another band. While there are bands that are not original and are good, Hell-Born isn’t one of them. Not only are the unique bands better than these guys, even the not so unique ones are better. Listening to the music you can tell the band strove to be different, but they just weren’t able to pull it off. Their ideas sound like they took work to pull out of themselves, and lots of it. Their composing ability is only mediocre also. The transitions in the music are many times less than decent. Sometimes the band opts to even use transitions and will just drop one idea and move to the next. Thus, the music is choppy and tedious. Hell-Born basically have every end of them frayed.

The album itself has no real defining characteristics. After listening to it, you should be thinking to yourself, “Why did I just waste 46 minutes of my life? I could have gotten all the elements of Hell-Born and more somewhere else and it would have tasted a lot sweeter!” The songs tend to run dry by the end of them, as does the entire album. That has much to do with the fact that half the songs sound like the other half, and you just get lost in the member’s train wreck of thought. The entire album is just a mess of unfinished and/or poorly drawn out ideas.

Bottom Line: Hell-Born have disappointed me with their underdeveloped approach to the scene. They not only failed to be creative and unique, but they failed to even keep their head above the water. This is only their debut, however, so it would not shock me if Hell-Born’s next serving were a much cleaner, and ultimately more well thought out album.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 3
Atmosphere: 4
Production: 3
Originality: 6
Overall: 4

Rating: 4 out of 10

Review by Alex on August 11, 2019.

I'm in awe! What we have here is renaissance traditional heavy metal done dare I say, perfectly. That is not a word I use lightly and even more so, it’s a word I condemn when engaged in describing music; because nothing is as such, however this is damn sure close; what is this éclat upon us? The riffs, the drumming, the vocals; the vocals!; a testament to musical greatness. When I first caught a glimpse of the material that would go on to exceed all my expectations, that being Switzerland’s Megaton Sword’s debut EP, Niralet, I was in no way excited. I mean there are tons of traditional heavy metal bands all claiming to be this and that, and to a marginal degree, several have achieved what they set out to accomplish; but my only thought at the time was, ‘whatever’. That would go on to change vastly and rather quickly after hearing the first track and being absolutely blown the fuck out of my boots by the sheer power and sound of pure passion on all instrumental and vocal fronts. Spellbinding, victorious, glorious, melancholic, mesmerizing and mighty are just some of the words that popped out upon hearing the first track of this masterpiece.  

‘Vulva of the Nightfall’ hits with the dogmatic force of a tyrant army; vocalist Uzzy ‘Unchained’ pours all of his emotions out unto the listener whether representing melancholy or anger, his voice reeks of passion and pulls like a magnet towards the era he is breathing life into. His ability to portray a scene of war, loss, conquest and sacrifice is sensational. He commits his soul to the music to the point that sees Niralet thought being a debuting EP, compete vigorously with some of the best releases within the genre both past and present; one of those and more lately being Eternal Champion’s "The Armour of Ire". Chris ‘The Axe’ and Simon ‘The Sorcerer’ rally carry the banner and give relentless support to Uzzy’s commanding and championed vocals with fiery, maiming riffs and enchanted pulsing bass; a combination of rhythmic rapture, while drummer Dan ‘Thundersteel’ provides the beat to the battle march. Plowing through enemy territory with victorious battle shouts and lament, Megaton Sword provide piercing and heartfelt melodies with tracks in the form of ‘Pristine War’ and ‘Realms to Conquer’ that emanate an incense carrying the whiff of dirge and doom, via soft melodies coated with the crusade of Uzzys vocal expanse.

Niralet is an all-round effort that shares a deep sense of merit and honor; this band is going to explode, hopefully for the better. To deliver such an astounding and seemingly professional performance at such an early stage in their musical journey comes as a massive welcome to the underground scene. Megaton Sword is definitely one of the bands, if not, THE BAND any connoisseur of heavy metal should be paying keen attention to here-on out. Niralet has stormed the fortress of this thing we call metal and has done so with both charm and conquer of ages long gone. 

Rating: 9 out of 10        

Review by Alex on August 11, 2019.

I'm in awe! What we have here is renaissance traditional heavy metal done dare I say, perfectly. That is not a word I use lightly and even more so, it’s a word I condemn when engaged in describing music; because nothing is as such, however this is damn sure close; what is this éclat upon us? The riffs, the drumming, the vocals; the vocals!; a testament to musical greatness. When I first caught a glimpse of the material that would go on to exceed all my expectations, that being Switzerland’s Megaton Sword’s debut EP, Niralet, I was in no way excited. I mean there are tons of traditional heavy metal bands all claiming to be this and that, and to a marginal degree, several have achieved what they set out to accomplish; but my only thought at the time was, ‘whatever’. That would go on to change vastly and rather quickly after hearing the first track and being absolutely blown the fuck out of my boots by the sheer power and sound of pure passion on all instrumental and vocal fronts. Spellbinding, victorious, glorious, melancholic, mesmerizing and mighty are just some of the words that popped out upon hearing the first track of this masterpiece.  

‘Vulva of the Nightfall’ hits with the dogmatic force of a tyrant army; vocalist Uzzy ‘Unchained’ pours all of his emotions out unto the listener whether representing melancholy or anger, his voice reeks of passion and pulls like a magnet towards the era he is breathing life into. His ability to portray a scene of war, loss, conquest and sacrifice is sensational. He commits his soul to the music to the point that sees Niralet thought being a debuting EP, compete vigorously with some of the best releases within the genre both past and present; one of those and more lately being Eternal Champion’s "The Armour of Ire". Chris ‘The Axe’ and Simon ‘The Sorcerer’ rally carry the banner and give relentless support to Uzzy’s commanding and championed vocals with fiery, maiming riffs and enchanted pulsing bass; a combination of rhythmic rapture, while drummer Dan ‘Thundersteel’ provides the beat to the battle march. Plowing through enemy territory with victorious battle shouts and lament, Megaton Sword provide piercing and heartfelt melodies with tracks in the form of ‘Pristine War’ and ‘Realms to Conquer’ that emanate an incense carrying the whiff of dirge and doom, via soft melodies coated with the crusade of Uzzys vocal expanse.

Niralet is an all-round effort that shares a deep sense of merit and honor; this band is going to explode, hopefully for the better. To deliver such an astounding and seemingly professional performance at such an early stage in their musical journey comes as a massive welcome to the underground scene. Megaton Sword is definitely one of the bands, if not, THE BAND any connoisseur of heavy metal should be paying keen attention to here-on out. Niralet has stormed the fortress of this thing we call metal and has done so with both charm and conquer of ages long gone. 

Rating: 9 out of 10        

Review by Alex on August 11, 2019.

I'm in awe! What we have here is renaissance traditional heavy metal done dare I say, perfectly. That is not a word I use lightly and even more so, it’s a word I condemn when engaged in describing music; because nothing is as such, however this is damn sure close; what is this éclat upon us? The riffs, the drumming, the vocals; the vocals!; a testament to musical greatness. When I first caught a glimpse of the material that would go on to exceed all my expectations, that being Switzerland’s Megaton Sword’s debut EP, Niralet, I was in no way excited. I mean there are tons of traditional heavy metal bands all claiming to be this and that, and to a marginal degree, several have achieved what they set out to accomplish; but my only thought at the time was, ‘whatever’. That would go on to change vastly and rather quickly after hearing the first track and being absolutely blown the fuck out of my boots by the sheer power and sound of pure passion on all instrumental and vocal fronts. Spellbinding, victorious, glorious, melancholic, mesmerizing and mighty are just some of the words that popped out upon hearing the first track of this masterpiece.  

‘Vulva of the Nightfall’ hits with the dogmatic force of a tyrant army; vocalist Uzzy ‘Unchained’ pours all of his emotions out unto the listener whether representing melancholy or anger, his voice reeks of passion and pulls like a magnet towards the era he is breathing life into. His ability to portray a scene of war, loss, conquest and sacrifice is sensational. He commits his soul to the music to the point that sees Niralet thought being a debuting EP, compete vigorously with some of the best releases within the genre both past and present; one of those and more lately being Eternal Champion’s "The Armour of Ire". Chris ‘The Axe’ and Simon ‘The Sorcerer’ rally carry the banner and give relentless support to Uzzy’s commanding and championed vocals with fiery, maiming riffs and enchanted pulsing bass; a combination of rhythmic rapture, while drummer Dan ‘Thundersteel’ provides the beat to the battle march. Plowing through enemy territory with victorious battle shouts and lament, Megaton Sword provide piercing and heartfelt melodies with tracks in the form of ‘Pristine War’ and ‘Realms to Conquer’ that emanate an incense carrying the whiff of dirge and doom, via soft melodies coated with the crusade of Uzzys vocal expanse.

Niralet is an all-round effort that shares a deep sense of merit and honor; this band is going to explode, hopefully for the better. To deliver such an astounding and seemingly professional performance at such an early stage in their musical journey comes as a massive welcome to the underground scene. Megaton Sword is definitely one of the bands, if not, THE BAND any connoisseur of heavy metal should be paying keen attention to here-on out. Niralet has stormed the fortress of this thing we call metal and has done so with both charm and conquer of ages long gone. 

Rating: 9 out of 10