Review of "Jacob’s Ladder" by Hell Militia

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1. Jacob's Ladder

2. Jonah

3. Sternenfall

4. Death Worship

5. The Black Projector

6. The Second Coming of the Pig

7. Deus Irae

8. Jericho

HELL MILITIA are back with a vengeance! Since its founding in the year 1999 by lead guitarist T. Persecutor, the band has been a rising dark star in the underground Black Metal scene. Now their third full-length “Jacob's Ladder” bursts unto the world like a black supernova. The French masterfully achieve a unification of old school values such as a harsh and fierce yet accessible songwriting with the new dissonant and ruptured sound which is especially explored in their homeland. After recruiting like minded spirits HELL MILITIA unveiled themselves first with the split “SPK Kommando” (2001) and a demo named “The Second Coming – Reh” (2003), which won them a record deal. The debut album “Canonisation of the Foul Spirit” (2005) gained the French international attention and critical acclaim. As members of HELL MILITIA were also active in bands such as ARKHON INFAUSTUS, SECRETS OF THE MOON or TEMPLE OF BAAL, their next output appeared after a hiatus of five years. “Last Station on the Road to Death” (2010) proved to be a success as well as their tours with the likes of ARCHGOAT, BEHEXEN, BLACKLODGE and AOSOTH. This fuelled the band’s vision both musically and visually as indicated by the inclusion of a VJ as a permanent member in their line-up. The universe of HELL MILITIA smells of urban filth, unshakable religious faith and an extremely bitter after taste. Recorded in Germany’s SOS studio (SECRETS OF THE MOON, ASCENSION), "Jacob's Ladder" delivers 8 stunning tracks of disturbing French Black Metal. Listen with care!

This album opens on a weird sound clip, goes straight into the grim sound that is black metal with the album titled track, “Jacob's Ladder.” The chilling riffs and heavy assault drums were highly enjoyable. I also liked the slower riff three quarters of the way through as it was menacing. The vocals sound great and not over the top like some black metal bands do. “Jonah” the next track, brings excellent guitars with the machine gun speed cold feeling riffs and the catchy yet evil slower groovy pieces. This track is everything you want from a black metal band and Hell Militia nail every aspect of the genre perfectly on this track and is one of my favourites. The first minute and some change of “Sternenfall” is a slow guitar piece with sound clips over top. The riff melds right into the actual track and the band comes in at full force. I like how this track flowed with the mix of faster and slower paced riffs. The guitars on “Death Worship” are really sludgy sounding and awesome. It’s a great track to listen to, to get in the mood for sacrificing goats to the slaughter and virgins to the cross.

“The Black Projector” brings another great mix of the quicker ear bleeding blackened riffs and slower relaxing yet terrorizing slower lead riffs. The riffs on the next track, “The Second Coming of the Pig” are extremely menacing the way they are laid out and the vocals are extremely gruelling. There are sound clips about LSD giving people religious experience on this track. It makes me want to go out and raise hell on churches while on LSD, don’t do drugs kids! The guitars on “Deus Irae” are very catchy in their delivery. This track is pretty much in your face with its powerful force of black metal and another favourite of mine. “Jericho” is the longest track coming in at nine minutes, a great length for a track to conclude an epic album. It’s a mostly mellow but chilling track, the riffs are a little repetitive but I find them very grim and trance inducing. Black metal is probably one of the only genres of metal in which you can get away with repetitive riffs. This track is a really great way to end the album

Hell Militia’s “Jacob’s Ladder” is a masterpiece in the grim genre of black metal. With their skill in both the menacing fast paced riffs and pounding blast beats as well as mellow yet very chilling riffs. I highly recommend picking this up if you enjoy black metal, as this is a must have for genre fans.