'At Hell's Deep' the latest offering from the mighty DLR band. No that's not the DAVID LEE ROTH band, its the band DEVIL LEE ROT who are named after their "evil dwarf from Hell" lead singer. And no, he's not really a dwarf but he sounds like one. As a matter of fact if you can imagine Udo Dirkschneider, the worst wannabe black metal singer you have ever heard and a dwarf (or maybe an elf), that would best describe this guy. He sorta looks like Brian Vollmer from HELIX. I want to say these guys are from Sweden, but it would not surprise me if they were from Denmark or Germany.

When I first looked at the album cover I thought these guys must have a pretty good sense of humor. I thought they might be the death metal version of THE DARKNESS. But no, these guys are fuckin serious! You have five guys on top of a rock pile, brandishing chains amidst a backdrop of flames. They must be at the top of Hell's deep. In the middle you have Devil Lee Rot himself clutching with BOTH hands not a battle axe, but a small hatchet, just large enough to chop kindling. He means business with that little thing. I bet he is a butcher with a pen knife. Also of note is the super great skullet adorned by bass player Lenny Blade. It would make Ian Hill and Paul Quinn jealous.

On to the music. To be fair there are some decent NWOBHM-inspired riffs on this disc. But that is not enough to bring this album out of almost complete suckdom. For one, most of the riffs are just an amateur attempt at old I MAIDEN and MANOWAR ripoffs. The guitars sound like they were masterfully recorded on a four track. Not the worst I have ever heard, but not far from it. Maybe they pooled their resources and daisy-chained two four tracks together. You have the MAIDEN-style intro called "The Battle" which features the only real guitar solo of the album. There are some second-rate harmony parts in various songs and that's as confident as these guys get. Guitarist J.Voltage forever dedicates his guitar playing on this album to MAIDEN, MERCYFUL FATE, and MANOWAR. He has since been replaced by some guy named B.Hellrazor. Lyrically what you have really is the death metal equivalent to THE DARKNESS. Only you won't be laughing with them you will be laughing at them. The great thing is that they were actually clueless enough to print the lyrics on the inside cover. Even in printed form these words have an accent: "They all shall falling down; And I fighting to the end; In the mist and dark I stay; And wait for my final slay". The opening lyrics to 'Man Made Of Steel' are priceless too: "Here I stand; On the Marshall Tower; And I screaming out; I'm a metal fighter"! You sure are little fella. All the lyrics are like this. Reading them while listening to this guy sing them was full-on comedy, at least for awhile because he actually gets super annoying after about 3 or for 4 minutes. I would have to say if I mistakenly went to one of their shows I would have to get up on stage and strangle the shit out of him.

This is probably the worst album I have reviewed. These guys really are a fourth-rate metal band. The worst part is I actually listened to this disc twice all the way through just to be fair. I almost gave them a two, but that to me would indicate potential. Individually some of these guys might have that but not in this band. And definitely not with this parody of a singer. So guys, ditch the metal leprechaun, pull out your SABS albums one more time and listen a little closer.

- Peters

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/dlrmetal

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