There is a strange lure about Helvete. Their EP ‘Bloodsoaked Sweets’ is one EP you don’t grow tired of. You’ll want to hear it tons of times. They are Swedish and started out ‘seriously’ in 2004. Sources say their music is hardcore. I say that’s bullshit. Sometimes there are hardcore bits, that’s true, but most of the times, their music is very difficult to describe. It’s metal and hardcore, but it sure as shit isn’t metalcore, that’s for sure. It’s mid-tempo, so there’s that; they’re very angry, there’s that, singer Mattias Sjogren screams as if he dies if he doesn’t, so there’s that. But, what does all that leave us with? An awesome, original and effective EP that stays interesting for a long, long time, and leaves you longing for a real album. (Which is out since the 11th, so check it).

Sometimes the guitars sound as if they weren’t tuned exactly right and sometimes in a song the band can sort of lose the plot, but somehow it doesn’t matter too much. The whole of it just simply clicks. Sure, in the middle of song 3, ‘The Final Rest’, they play the same part way too many times, but the payoff in the last minute is so beautiful and gutwrenching at the same time, that the previous bit is made up for.
The atmosphere on this EP is a cocktail of pain, loss, anger, disappointment, sloth and hopelessness, drunk in a sludgy bar.

The lyrics are about that as well and reading through them (you can’t really make every word out in the songs themselves, due to the screaming), I find them to be quite good. They mostly don’t rhyme, which is better when they’re about misery.
Every song has several redeeming features. There are smart drum fills and little tempo changes, marvellous innovative riffs, and the constant ripping screams. Everything comes together at at least two points per song on ‘Bloodsoaked Sweets’. Those points then keep resonating in your head, which makes you want to hear them again. Examples: the off-key start until the bridge of the opener ‘Amphetamine’, the beginning of ‘Hail Hate’, extremely simple, yet effective. I could go on but it isn’t necessary.

Bottom line: the music is simple, but very effective. The chords, riffs and notes just work and the angry vocals go perfectly with it. They don’t try to make the music any more difficult than needed, and that is what’s so refreshing about this EP. I want the album.
PS: the album is called ‘Black Cat’.
PSII: I didn’t mention the production, because I figured you could think of the way the production should sounde with this music should, and it does sound like that.