Review
Gehenna
Land Of Sodom II/Upon The Gravehill

Before we get into this, there is always the question that you have to ask yourself; and, with Gehenna, it is a wholly legitimate question that will in a very real sense determine your take on bands or music such as this because, truthfully, this is some of the dirtiest smack of reality and desperation that you probably would ever hear. So there it is; how real do you like your music?

I will always remember my first brush against the tainted demon wings of Gehenna opening the CD version of The War Of The Sons Of Light And The Sons Of Darkness and reading the ridiculous list included in the booklet that immediately made me a fan before I heard even one lick off the CD, but then I heard “83%” and knew immediately that I would be forever hooked on the band from that point forward; and dear lord what a weird trip it has been since that day with un-hyped albums showing up out of nowhere and wondering if what I was buying was thee Gehenna and not some other band all the while being completely crushed whenever something new came around the bend. This is the sound of debauched menace put to sound with the sheer intent of terrorizing people with sound and ranting madness; happy music this is not, nor is it the type of record that you can sit down and listen or work to because it can be violently disturbing in a lot of different ways (the only time that I can really listen to Gehenna is when I am pissed off about something and hate the world because it is the time when it feels right).

Land of Sodom II is just like that, chock full of bile and piss and vinegar while being hell bent on forcing you to confront the music because it is not a passive listening experience by any stretch of the imagination (I would liken it to a bum rushing you and mugging you for the pennies in your pocket so that he or she might go by the cheapest alcohol imaginable with which to continue his or her drunken reveries); this is the music of living life on the edge of madness and extreme desperation and offers no apologies for its raw ugliness or rough milieu (though this reissue from A389 does improve the sound quality a great deal and adds more power to a previously impressive initial release and including the Upon The Gravehill LP on the CD included in this 7” package is a pretty stellar idea as well since that album was just as criminally overlooked as most everything that this band has done).

This is not easy music (if you want that go listen to the latest pop tart available), but rather it is a dark reflection of the times that we are in as seen through the eyes of one Mike Cheese and his conspirators; and with a name like Gehenna it is the more chaotic and self destructive version of its name sake (rather than the multitude of bands that also use this name for the “evil” connotations associated to the name) that may be the best social comment of all. Get this or pose.