Hell Promise

Seattle’s four decade-long legacy of producing some of the heaviest, most intense and innovative bands around continues into the new millennium with the Emerald City’s latest entry into the world of extreme music: Hell Promise. With deep roots in the rock, metal and hardcore scenes, it’s not surprising that the sound the band has crafted since its inception in March 2003 is a full-frontal assault on the senses, a punishing metalcore hybrid that leaves subtlety to less daring bands. Originally formed by guitarist Brian Johnson and drummer Jason Jacobs after Johnson’s exit from local legends Himsa (a band Johnson helped start in 1998), the other key pieces would soon fall into place. Bassist Nate Baker and vocalist Colin Breiwick made Hell Promise nearly complete, but the addition of guitarist AP (who also does time in the punk band Milhous) provided the band with the necessary nitro to fuel its two-guitar fury. The explosive nature of this relationship can be heard on the four new tracks Hell Promise recorded in Seattle with producer Steve Carter (Himsa, Grieving The Days To Come) where Johnson and AP ride speedy riffs between dueling guitar harmonies and thundering crescendos while Breiwick growls and screams like a man possessed. The band’s fusion of traditional Euro thrash and black metal sounds with more contemporary death metal and hardcore influences create a musical disturbance with the power and fury of a Force 10 hurricane. It is the new frontier of metal where strict categories and classifications cease to exist. And like numerous outstanding Seattle bands in previous decades, Hell Promise is playing by different rules, creating a new tradition of brutal music that’s soon to be discovered by the rest of the world.