Hellspawn

Australia and Scandinavia may be at opposite ends of the Earth, but the black metal highway to hell has burned its fiery path between them. The blasphemous tirades and blast-furnace musical outrage of Burzum, Emperor, Mayhem, Darkthrone, etc., have found a horde of willing converts Down Under, and birthed a fledgling scene there that has yielded the likes of Bestial Warlust, Abominator and Destroyer 666. Most of these bands have remained on the far fringes of the underground - and thankfully steered clear of the arson and murder of the "Lords of Chaos" reign of terror in Norway in the early 90s. But Australia's new satanic minions, the fittingly named Hellspawn, may just make the legions take notice when they unleash their debut album in August on Rotten Records.

Formed as a side band by members of Australian extremists Damaged, Order From Chaos and others - and undeterred by near constant line-up turmoil - the Melbourne-based quintet have evolved into a formidable black metal killing machine over the past three-plus years. Brutality defined with the fire-breathing vocals of Nekroslayer (a.k.a. Matt Sanders, drummer with Damaged), chainsaw riffs of guitarist Masochist and a veritable stampede of double-bass drum mayhem, yet sophisticated in its complex arrangements and hint of classically-inspired grandeur, Hellspawn's sonic fury rivals that of "In The Nightside Eclipse"-era Emperor.

"We were all friends from other bands and had idea to come up with a brutal death metal band," said Sanders. "When we got Masochist, he was more into black metal and when he started writing his riffs everything changed. I think there's a bit more going on with black metal, especially when you combine elements of death metal. And the themes were more tied to that style. Once we were done with the album, we were pretty impressed with the way it all worked out.