Hellish Crossfire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hellish Crossfire | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 1985 | |||
| Recorded | Caet Studio, Berlin, Germany, May 1985 | |||
| Genre | Speed metal | |||
| Length | 41:19 | |||
| Label | SPV GmbH | |||
| Producer | Horst Muller | |||
| Iron Angel chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
Hellish Crossfire is the debut album by German speed metal band Iron Angel, released in 1985 through SPV GmbH.
The music and lyrical content on Hellish Crossfire is considered to be Satanic. Incorporating elements of thrash metal, the sound has been compared to Helloween and early Slayer. Some publications consider the album to be an underrated release in the genre, though the album's cover artwork has been retroactively mocked.
Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic said that Hellish Crossfire "contained an explosive mix of speed and thrash metal that generally avoided the uncompromising black metal-tinged direction preferred by Kreator, Sodom, and their ilk, to embrace the melodic power metal-leaning style also championed by Helloween."[2] Revolver called the album "a Satanic riff-storm in the spirit of Slayer’s Hell Awaits, with appropriately brimstone-choked lyrics."[3]
Artwork
Reception and legacy
Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic gave Hellish Crossfire four stars out of five. He said the album "is a living testament to the wild, untamed excitement that fueled the first wave of German thrash metal bands, of which the Hamburg quintet had been one of the earliest contenders. Quite like the first mini-album from crosstown rivals Helloween released that same year, Hellish Crossfire brewed up potent speed metal that was certainly a little rough around the edges, but excusably so given the band's sheer enthusiasm and boundless, youthful energy while delivering it."[5]
In 2020, J. Bennett of Revolver included the album on his list of "10 Criminally Underrated 80s Thrash Albums". He wrote: "Though they didn’t have the staying power of Germany’s Big Three, Hamburg’s Iron Angel dropped a crucial slab of Teutonic thrash with their 1985 debut."[6]
In 2021, Simon Young of Kerrang! included the album in an article naming "50 of the worst album covers ever".[4]
