“Power From Hell” is one of these ONSLAUGHT`s albums that I am still sentimental about; and despite the fact that “The Force” is, in my view, a more mature stuff, yet “Power From Hell” impresses with its debut`s rawness. There is no skills show or virtuosity, here on this album. The music, plain and simple to the bone as it is combines Punk and plenty of Devil.
Dirty, very rough guitar sound and D-beat drumming exhibit more similarity to DISCHARGE or GBH than to typical thrash metal noise; and if it wasn’t for the metal rumbling and lyrics as well as reverberating solos, most of this, made in GB stuff, could be easily deemed to be some Crust/Punk stuff. It is “The Force” when ONSLAUGHT began to sound like a real thrash metal band ought to sound;of course this fact doesn’t mean that “Power from Hell” doesn’t have this metal nature, but surely it was not that metal`ish as their second album from 1986 was.
“Power from Hell,” the title track that opens up the A side (together with this diabolic“Damnation” intro) is a solid piece of metal music. Even after 30 years, this track is friggin impressive. It’s one of the most interesting tracks on this album, that’s for sure. Thissongperfectly balances rawness and energy, and this awesome VENOM-like solo is just fucking A1. Another track, “Thermonuclear Devastation” is rather punkish, with some subtle thrash metal elements.
But for the solos, these two tracks would not have anything to do with metal at all. “Skullcrusher” and one of the two instrumental tracks on this album are Punkish alright. It is only “Lord of Evil” that brings some real metal devastation. There is plenty of VENOM/SLAYER influences in this track. One of the cooler tracks on this album, I think. Same can be said about“Death Metal” that wraps up the A side. This music is extremely simple, but damn powerful. I am pretty sure these tracks when played live were just killer.
The B side starts with “Angels of Death.”It is all damn devastation right from the beginning; the Paul’s vocals are effing crushing. “The Devil’s Legion” or “Steel Meets Steel” are another tracks that bring some strongly accented punk influences. These two tracks perfectly mirror the contemporary trend of mixing apparently different music genres. It is very observable when it comes to ONSLAUGHT.
“SkullcrusherII” is another instrumental variation in this style. “Witchhunt” is another favorite track of mine on this album, this dynamic song is very metal`ish. The album ends up with the outro composed by CarlOrff and is thefragment of “CarminaBurana.”On this album, this fragment is simply titled“Mighty Empress.”
LeszekWojnicz-Sianożęcki