Major League Heavy-Rock. Hellamor / Red Stone Chapel

"Friends, you have seen the heavy groups and now you will see morning maniac music. Believe me, it's a new dawn", Grace Slick says in the intro of 'Volunteers' on the original soundtrack of Woodstock. What would she have said, had she heard Hellamor diving headfirst into 'Fallen Saint' from its split maxisingle with Red Stone Chapel, just before Jefferson Airplane had to go on? Words would probably not have sufficed.

I was reminded of Grace Slick's introduction to Jefferson Airplane's performance on Max Yasgur's farm because of the title of the album, Major League Heavy-Rock. This is heavy music alright, but totally on my good side. For a simple reason, Hellamor plays a song and so does Red Stone Chapel. A song that is played fast, loud and ferocious, with howling guitars and one grunting singer, but songs they are.

This has to do with, although technically a lot happens in the songs, the brunt is not on pyrotechniques in either riffing or playing, but on melody. In this I have a slight preference for Hellamor, mostly because of the singing that is. Both bands guard their deep end as if it is the treasure of the universe. Only when that defence is up, are other sounds allowed to escape.

Hellamor and Red Stone Chapel are German bands that are around for close to two decades respectively more than a decade, but have not recorded many albums over those years. They do perform regularly together, at the time, and from there the idea rose do make a split record together and let the fans know that they are still around.

Hellamor kicks the album off with four songs, starting with the epic 'Fallen Saint'. This song caught me immediately. It is tremendously rock solid. The kind of song that knows no doubt. What you hear is what you get and don't even think about something else. The brute force takes everything over. Not being a true metal fan, I do hear influences ranging from Black Sabbath, AC/DC to Van Halen guitar shrieks. The other three songs fall into this category as well. The songs are so hard rocking, but I can't help totally liking them. 'I Can Hear It' is a song I may even like better than 'Fallen Saint'. Great accenting in the riffs giving the song even more pace.

Red Stone Chapel shares two studio songs and two live songs to side B. At first I had a harder time listening to the songs, because of the way of singing, that moves closer to grunting, alternating with a bass voice not coming close to Till Lindemann's. Let's say I'm happy not to have to sing this way. It took two listening sessions to realise that Red Stone Chapel also plays songs. The kind of riffs Led Zeppelin played from a blues angle, hardrockified. What I started to notice, is how the band works with dynamics. Keep in mind that the band has three guitarists, and a bass player, when you listen to 'The Paper King'. Then you understand how good this band is at reticence. Playing in a band myself, I know how hard it is to make someone not play or less, including myself ;-). Next I noticed the great melodies that are played on the lead guitar, supporting the exerting voice of the singer. Deep down, that Led Zeppelin blues groove is worked into the songs of Red Stone Chapel. The harmonica in 'Progress In Work' attests to that, as does the Tom Waits like vocals. Never mind the comic vocal interlude before the chorus goes off.

The live songs show how capably Red Stone Chapel rocks on stage. A Lenny Kravitz like riff kicks off 'Genius Junction', before the lead guitars come in, gracing the song as much as Slash's Gibson Les Paul graced 'Always On The Run'. It goes to show how wide this band is able to reach for influences without losing the hardrocking basis that it dwells in.

Yes, this is a loud record, but there's no reason not to like it for one second.

Wout de Natris

 

You can listen to and order Major League Heavy-Rock here:

https://godownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/major-league-heavy-rock

or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g