Review Summary: Death, the ultimate reason to live
There’s fun to be had with the raw potential that Hallows Eve showed on 1985’s Tales of Terror, but Death & Insanity saw some serious upgrades in a year’s time. The cover art summarizes the transition well, rooted in the last album’s eccentric aesthetic but professionally executed compared to the high school notebook design. It’s still the same sort of rough and tumble horror metal but the band acquired the tools to better realize their ambitions for the style.
The musicianship certainly reflects the growth in between with a more solid production job to match. The vocals in particular have improved, mostly settled into a husky baritone reminiscent of Paul Stanley with dips into harsher bellows and more controlled banshee wails. The guitars have also stepped up considerably, matching the bass’s weight with more intricate thrash riffing and a classic metal attitude, while the drums are similarly tighter. There are admittedly times where one misses the debut’s slapdash appeal but there’s plenty of endearing charm here.
What really makes Death & Insanity interesting is the conceptual theme that the songs are built around. It’s most obviously demonstrated by the bookending two-minute title tracks setting up the motifs in brisk catchy fashion but the others prove to be just as preoccupied with death. It’s the sort of thing that’s dismiss as generic metal lyric fodder on the surface, but looking deeper reveals multiple perspectives on the take with a more existential flair than most. Songs like “Suicide” and “Nefarious” are musically and thematically violent, but others like “Plea of the Aged” and “Nobody Lives Forever” are ironically life-affirming with their reflections on one’s mortality.
It’s also cool to see the band pushing their already diverse songwriting to even further extents. “Goblet of Gore” covers quite a lot of ground in its riff salad, boasting speedy verses and vocals that range from flurried declarations to a climactically chanted breakdown. “Lethal Tendencies” and “D.I.E. (Death in Effect)” are drawn out anthems with upbeat chugs and singalong choruses, “Plea of the Aged” starts off with a bluesy groove before descending into melodic thrash, and “Attack of the Iguana” breaks things up with some especially jagged rhythms.
Death & Insanity isn’t quite among the echelon of legendary albums released in 1986, but it’s easily the strongest iteration of Hallows Eve’s method. Their blend of influences remains unique after all this time and the lessons learned from Tales of Terror no doubt made for better playing and songwriting. The concept gives some extra purpose while staying no-nonsense enough to avoid feeling pretentious and it never feels like the band overextended themselves in the process.
