The Hellz Kitchen Show
Demo
6.7
Every once and a while, for some reason or another, we get a huge lump of submissions. We're probably all hoping for a death metal gem we would've never heard of if it wasn't sent, but more often or not, what we actually get is something that's along the lines of The Hellz Kitchen Show. Which isn't that bad, mind you, but when you've already reviewed about ten of these bands, it starts to wear on a guy. To their credit, The Hellz Kitchen Show are about the best I've heard do what they're doing. It's just unfortunate what they're doing just...isn't that good in the eyes of most of us.
I can envision these guys on Ozzfest's second stage some day, or maybe achieving the level of success of bands like Cellophane, American Headcharge, Dope, and maybe even Drowning Pool. As they are, it's kind of a techno/industrial metal hybrid that's obviously influenced by earlier Marilyn Manson. There's a heavy but well disciplined usage of keyboards, and the vocals remain steady yet distinctive, yet bearing a similarity to Marilyn Manson's. The recording is unexpectedly good for a demo, which definitely helps in making it easier to stomach. It seems they've taken a hint from their influences, as they rip-off the widely recognized song by Eddy Grant, "Electric Avenue" on their song "Triple Six". Unfortunately though (maybe), it's only four songs long, so if I were the members of The Hellz Kitchen Show, I wouldn't count on moving too many copies.
It pains me to give this the score it does, because it's so unremittingly cliche. It's my duty as a reviewer to be fair, though, no matter how lame I think the entire genre is. Members of that whole My Life With Thrill Kill Kult/Dope/Mindless Self Indulgence/Bile/Static-X subculture might want to keep their eyes fixated on The Hellz Kitchen Show, while the rest of us struggle to forget about them.
