Onslaught - Power from Hell (1985)
Members:
Paul Mahoney – vocals
Nige Rockett – guitar
Jase Stallard – bass
Steve Grice – drums
Factoid:
Power from Hell is the debut studio album by English thrash metal band Onslaught, released in February 1985. Apparently confusion has arisen as to who coined the term Death Metal, as it was Onslaught who wrote their song 'Death Metal' in early 1984 and recorded the album version later in the same year, Possessed who recorded their song entitled "Death Metal" on their 1984 demo tape of the same name. "Power from Hell" was reissued in 1996 by Powerage Records, again in 2005 by Blackend Records and received a full remaster by Jacob Hansen for the 2012 release on AFM Records; the 2012 release rectifies the track listing problem encountered on previous releases and has revamped artwork with liner notes by Steve Grice.
The Review:
It is normally almost impossible, but already the first official label output of Onslaught presented the band's first stylistic change. But definitely not their last. Anyway, let's speak about "Power from Hell". I just stumbled on this one around 1988 or so when I was looking for some new things to head bang to, and the cover caught my eye. When I went home with my bounty of new tunes and finally put this one in the cassette player I really didn't know what to make of it at first, it was so dirty sounding, kinda like a punk album, but it wasn't punk, it was thrash...I was compelled to dig a bit deeper into this album and into this band and what I discovered has made this one of my goto bands over the years, but let's just get into the slime and gunk that is, Power from Hell....
The debut offers a fine dose of death metal after their punk-orientated demos. Only "Thermonuclear Devastation", the opener of their first demo, holds the flag of punk-influenced metal high. The vast majority of the pieces can be allocated to the lethal sub genre. Yet one has to keep in mind that Onslaught deliver a very early form of death metal. Roughly 25 years after its release, the German magazine RockHard listed the album as one of 250 thrash metal albums that everyone should know. (But even the powerless "In Search of Sanity" showed up in this pretty questionable list.) From my present point of view, "Power from Hell" is a hybrid of black, thrash and death metal. But the British dudes called the sixth track "Death Metal" and therefore I do not see a basis for further discussions. I would just like to comment that the guitar lines and the verses of "The Devil's Legion" lie in close proximity to those of Exciter's "Saxons of the Fire", but only intimidated posers would classify this Canadian classic as death metal. Apart from this alarming similarity, "The Devil's Legion" belongs to the best tracks of "Power from Hell". Don't be fooled by its playful guitars at the beginning, this piece delivers pure, fast and dark heavy metal.
Although the above mentioned punk track does not square with the mega-satanic intro, Onslaught attempt to offer a stylistic mish-mash, but it doesn't always pan out. "Power from Hell" is not the most coherent album of the heavy metal history, but its relatively occult aura is more or less consistent. Of greater relevance is the fact that the band shows its talent for catchy compositions. The choruses of the title track, "Death Metal" or "Angels of Death" are very infectious earworms and will stick in your mind immediately. These tracks withstand the fairly adverse conditions. I freely admit that the full-length is not equipped with an excellent production. A small budget, a deaf producer or both? However, despite its certain dullness here and there, the guitars achieve an adequate level of vehemence. All in all, the sound is acceptable, at least for a debut.
Leaving the minor stylistic twists and turns out of consideration, Onslaught do not surprise with experiments. The song patterns avoid complications and the riffs don't flirt with non-metallic types of music. The carefree debutants do their job and they unveil their affinity for malignant sounds in a clever manner. The fact that the guys also present a certain degree of variety adds the finishing touch.
Is it authentic to modify the style at this early stage of development? I don't know. Perhaps it was an act of survival, because punk died a slow death and metal was in full bloom. But I do not want to speculate about the reasons of the new orientation, quite apart from the fact that the distance between punk and metal is not extremely great. Anyway, "Power from Hell" marked the first step of a remarkable career. The band was seemingly never free from inner conflicts, but this is exactly what makes it so exciting. Besides that, we may not forget that the majority of Onslaught's albums increased the reputation of the British metal scene in a significant way.
Score: 4/5
