The Generals - To Hell Review

Here’s an exceptional example of how the tone affects a lot the sonancy of the band to the point of changing the style of the band. The Generals define themselves as a death’n’roll band. I confess that I couldn’t understand this term properly until I listen to this “The Hell.” The firts thing that comes to mind is the toning. My fan, please, correct me if I’m wrong but The Generals use the standard toning a little bit low-tuned to give this low sonancy to their guitars and bass. Other Death Metal bands are using some exotic scales to give a distinct sound and to soften the aggression. I mean, to let death growls vocals be more aggressive than the guitars. For this there’s a feeling of contrast that overwhelms the listener and leave the guitars more understandable. Low tuning in general leave the guitars in a great fuzz though indistinguishable from the bass, or in laymen words, a big sonic mass that nobody understand a thing. Here The Generals were able to use low tones without giving this impression to the fan.

“To Hell” impresses for all the above mentioned. At first, the fan feel some estrangement due to the distinct sonancy of the band. There’s another thing that make the album sound so distinct and that is the much use of chordly riffing. That gives a certain power to the songs for the effect they have. Opening track “Faith in Fire” gives the fan the impression that it’s not a Death Metal band due to all the above mentioned and the highlighted basslines full of distortion. But soon this impression goes away with the death growls which reminds the fan it’s a Death Metal band. Also there are some breaks in its middle that give a certain misdirection to the song, but not that much as soon as the guitars licks put everything back in the right place. By the way, the riffing is insane. In general, while listening to all “To Hell” the fan may feel that it’s a Melodic Death Metal or – I guess – a band with huge influences of Motörhead much more for the basslines than other features. Listen to the title track “To Hell” and tell me about it.

It’s so good to hear something that adds new sonancies to Metal music. The Generals with “To Hell” nailed it.

The Generals “To Hell” was released on February 26th via Black Zombie Records.

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