UMUR
"Wastelands" is the debut full-length studio album by Slovenian death/crust act Hellcrawler. The album was released through Hollow Earth Records in May 2011. The album is available in a digipack CD version, but it´s also free for download on the band´s Bandcamp page.
The music on the album is a mix of old school death metal and D-beat crust/hardcore. Add to that lyrical themes about post apocalyptic wastelands (think the "Fallout" game or maybe the "Cyborg" or the "Mad Max" movies) and you got yourself a powerful cocktail. The music is energetic, decently played and the album features a decent sound production too. I´m not blown away but I´m certainly entertained and my head bangs more than once during the playing time and that´s always a positive sign.
The tracks are relatively short and to the point. 10 tracks distributed over a 30:02 minutes long playing time tell that story. This is a no frills "we´re gonna kick your ass" type of album and it gets the job done pretty well. The songs are maybe a bit too one-dimensional and hard to tell apart, but upon repeated listens little hooks begin to appear. A 3 star (60%) rating is deserved.