The mighty Gehennah have returned! Their first album ("Hardrocker") was an impressive slab of molten metal hell, and I had fairly high expectations for this (their sophomore release). Well, I'm happy to report that "King of the Sidewalk" is an even MORE impressive album that guides the path of true metaldom. Not a hell of a lot has changed really - the production is a bit better (where the first has so much bottom end that the guitars and bass bled into one another, here each instrument has a lot of headroom and can be easily distinguished from each other). Musically they've taken a slight turn (for the better IMHO) - it's still Venom circa "Welcome to Hell" (and a bit of "Black Metal as well), but they've injected that "rock'n'roll" feel that was missing on their first, and that's given this album a heavy Motorhead feel in the process. The song writing has also matured a bit - the riffs have gotten a bit more complex (comparatively speaking - Gehennah will never be known for their musical virtuosity), and they ooze catchiness. Of course, one thing that hasn't matured is the lyrical content, as is easily gathered from such titles as "Bitch with a bulletbelt", "Bang your heads for Satan", "Tough guys don't look good", and "Saturdaynight blasphemer". This might be a "bad" thing for all the 90s era short haired pseudo-metalheads out there, but in my books, the tongue-in-cheek approach is a refreshing change from all the "way too serious for it's own good" shite out there.

Highly recommended - every song here is a corker (with special mentionings going to "Bitch with a bulletbelt" and "(You're the) Devil in disguise"). Now, if only they had included the extra track ("Discodeath") on the CD version - damn vinyl enthusiasts...

© 1999 chorazaim