‘Claiming to be on the side of right, But so entranced by the spotlight, Enthralled you steal, From mouths you should feed, Taking the moment, From those that need’ (Complete Outsider)

Portland’s Hellshock, having initially made their mark in the noughties, first returned to the fray in 2022 with their self-titled fourth album.  That was their first release in thirteen years, igniting the band’s return to touring, and the next instalment has now arrived in the form of XXV.

The heart of the band’s sound remains rooted in its original stenchcore roots, the gutturally barked vocals, crushing slabs of riffage, and steamroller rhythm section evoking the spirit of early Bolt Thrower with a dark relish.  However, XXV also sees the band continue to build on the more melodic expressions that were first in evidence on Hellshock.  Neocrust melancholy fuels the elegiac aura that is riven through the album, while the soaring solos lean notably more towards NWOBHM inclinations than the thrashier eruptions of the band’s earliest releases.  This impressively organic evolution can, perhaps in part, be attributed to the arrival of Todd Burdette (Tragedy, Nightfell) to partner Brian Hopper in fashioning the band’s dual guitar onslaught.

Hellshock’s evolution is most vividly captured by the funereal melodicism of Dead Hands, the venomous velocity of The Hero Returns, and the bass fuelled swagger of Oblivion.  Lyrically, the band continue to deploy bleakly allusive imagery to explore a society increasingly at the mercy of a corrupt political class and self-serving tech barons.  And it is certainly a timely soundtrack as Portland once again finds itself at the epicentre of resisting America’s increasingly brazen flirtation with the apparatus of authoritarianism.