Release: 05/04/2022; (Vinyl: 02/09/2022)

Doom metal with Spanish lyrics – regular readers of our blog will undoubtedly think of Mortajas at this point. While the Chileans are very classical in style on their self-titled debut, the Argentinians HelėH take a much more epic approach on their self-titled debut album. You can imagine that – with all my appreciation for Mortajas in particular and pure doom lore in general – I quite welcome this circumstance.

The outstanding feature is without question the powerful voice of Gonzalo Civita, which should give genre fans goosebumps after goosebumps. In my opinion, epic doom metal stands and falls primarily with the vocals. If the man or woman on the mic doesn’t grab me, my enthusiasm is limited, no matter how strong the instrumental performance of the rest of the band is. The sublime vocal lines that Gonzalo Civita (make a note of that name!) treats us to are on a par with the quality offered by Scald and Procession. In addition, some really strong growls complement the clear vocals perfectly and give HelėH even more depth. There are always listeners, not least in the doom scene, who can’t do anything with growls, here they are – similar to Khemmis – absolutely crucial.

However, guitarist (and bassist) Matias Takaya is also convincing with some massive, classic riffs that lay a more than solid foundation for this 38-minute genre highlight. But also the melodic, often deeply sad and dreamy leads are absolutely fantastic. Drummer Joahn π also does a very fine job, so that all in all we are dealing with a flawless performance by the trio from Córdoba.

The songwriting is consistently on a high level, so that I simply can’t give you a song tip here. Enjoy the album in one piece at Bandcamp. I’m sure that EVERY genre fan, like me a few months ago, will already press the order button during the opener “Réquiem“. No one will regret it, I assure you!

Conclusion: HelėH put a fat exclamation mark right away with their first release. No wonder that there was a crowdfunding campaign in the German Deaf Forever Forum, which made its contribution to the fact that this album will soon be available on vinyl. The South Americans prove – like the aforementioned Mortajas – that it is also worth singing in the mother tongue in the doom genre. Even though HelėH would be a splendid release in any language, I’m still sure that Gonzalo Civita particularly shines in Spanish. I have already written above that you should keep this name in mind…

Performance: 98%
Songwriting: 90%
Creativity: 90%
Variety: 90%
Entertainment: 92%
OVERALL: 92%