Fallen Angel-Crawling out of hell

Self-produced
2010


Fallen Angel hail from upstate New York and they have embarked on an ambitious project. This album is meant to be the first of a trilogy and each album will have a companion novel. Guitarist John Cruppe wrote the novel that goes with this album. They also have planned out their live performances so that each band member will play a villain from the CD/novel on stage in full costume. That is a huge project that they committed themselves and my guess would be that they must certainly believe in it to devote the time and effort needed to complete this project. Judging from this disc I sincerely hope they follow through with the whole project. What we get is twenty tracks although almost half are intros to the songs they proceed. These intros are mostly sound effects and some brief arrangements that go along with the actions coming up in the next song. If I had to pick just one work to describe this album then I would say "frantic". That is how they attack their music like wild beasts anxious to leap out and take action. Imagine Judas Priest, Helstar and Slayer swirled into a jagged mix and then in enough of a modern metal take on it and you have a start as to where this band is coming from. Their overall approach is raw and I think there are positives and negatives to that. The plus side is they are brutal as they bludgeon your senses with their hyper brand of classic metal. You have to listen closely to really get the full experience of all that Fallen Angel are throwing at you. This band also has the ability to excel as much on their slower moments as well. The downside is that they are a little messy around the edges. I think they could tighten up at times and I am sure that will come with time. Also the drums occasionally get lost under the savage guitar riffs and the savage vocals. That's a production issue and that could be fixed for the next album too. Then again minor complaints because the final word is that this band has found a way to take the heavy rhythms that make up the heart of classic 80's style metal and add in their own intense fury. The results are that "Crawling out of a hell" is mind numbing effort that is hopefully just the start of what I think and hope this band will accomplish in the near future.