Nostradameus play power metal the Scandinavian way which translates to up tempo and aggressive melodic metal. Personally I’m not a big fan of this type of power metal and unfortunately Nostradameus is no exception to the rule. The fast and furious melodic metal is rather boring and inspirationless but most of all terribly predictable. The songs aren’t even that bad, it just sounds like I’ve heard it all a million times before.

The third track “Never Turning Back” offers a bit of variety with its extremely raw and powerful intro which reminds of Swedish death thrash metal (maybe not even that much of a wonder since the band hails from Gothenburg) and I wish more tracks would be like this but for the rest it’s all pretty much the same.

I’m also not a big fan of Freddy Persson’s vocals. At times his accent is annoying and he struggles with the more melodic parts of the album.

Hellbound features some decent songs with some good and powerful riffs but unfortunately it’s not enough to convince me that this band has got what it takes to break through in the already overcrowded European power metal scene. If you dig up tempo power metal and you don’t care too much about originality you might want to check it out. Otherwise I’d advice you to forget about Hellbound.