Hell

Derbyshire, England, produced the underground metal collective Hell, an occult rock outfit assembled during the first years of the 1980s. Nearly three decades passed before the group issued its debut full-length, Human Remains, in 2011.

The project began in 1982 when musicians from the recently dissolved British metal bands Race Against Time and Paralex united. Their live presentations combined horror-inspired theatrics with a hard-edged NWOBHM approach that evoked Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate, Saxon, and Judas Priest; they also stood among the earliest acts to employ the demonic corpse paint later associated with black metal. Largely overlooked by record labels and critics, Hell built a devoted audience through personal endorsements and the exchange of cassettes in underground networks. A recording agreement was reached with the Belgian company Mausoleum Records, yet the label collapsed two weeks before the scheduled studio sessions, prompting the band’s breakup and the 1987 suicide of co-founder Dave Halliday, who had served as vocalist and guitarist.

One of the group’s most dedicated early champions was the aspiring guitarist Andy Sneap, who subsequently co-founded the thrash metal band Sabbat and later worked as a Grammy-winning producer. In 2008 the surviving original members—bassist Tony Speakman, guitarist and keyboardist Kev Bower, and drummer Tim Bowler—approached Sneap about re-recording the band’s early material alongside the planned release of the original demos. He accepted the invitation, taking on production duties and guitar parts, while vocals were handled by David Bower, an established television and stage actor and the brother of Kev Bower. Nuclear Blast released Human Remains in 2011, which was followed by appearances at major festivals. The second album, Curse and Chapter, appeared in 2013. A self-titled third long player surfaced in 2018 on Sentient Ruin Laboratories.