The Magic Within

Third album from these Colombian blackened thrashers released a few years back, and it does about everything you'd expect South American black/thrash to. The riffs slice with Teutonic bite, the vocals rasp with ferocity, and the drums hammer like they came from some crummy basement in 1987. There are some melodic leads that give this more depth than you might expect, enough to evoke that raw, sulphuric underground magic, and that's enough to make this entertaining despite how conventional it is overall. I can't say Hellion are reinventing the black/thrash blade, but they certainly wield it with conviction, and sometimes, that's all you really need to do.