Available on cool blue/green ("algae bloom") splatter vinyl, and limited to 203 copies!

2008 was a big year for Hydra Head Records. We got so many amazing new albums from so many of my favorite bands that it was hard to keep up, Torche's Meanderthal, the new Harvey Milk, Jon Chang's awesome return to extreme grindcore with Hayaino Daisuke and Gridlink, the new Kayo Dot, whew. In amongst all of those killer records though was a debut CD from a new band that seemed to go unnoticed by alot of people, the Night Terror album from Helms Alee, which has actually turned into one of my favorite albums of 2008 period. Remember Harkonen? They were a band from Tacoma, Washington who released a couple of albums of crushing, distorted Karp/Melvins style sludge rock on Hydra Head before breaking up in the first half of the decade. The members went on to various other projects, and one of which was Helms Alee, formed by singer and bassist Ben Verellen. For this new band, Ben teamed up with Dana James and Hozoji Annie Matheson-Margullis for their first album Night Terror, and it definitely follows in the footsteps of Harkonen with huge bass-heavy riffs, Ben's bellowing vocals that do bear a resemblance to Karp, and driving, catchy sludge rock anthems. Once you get into deeper into this album though, you begin to hear these incredible indie-pop elements in all of the songs, where the crushing metallic riffage will suddenly break off into shimmering MBV guitars, and stomping sludge is wound around an insanely catchy pop hook. And the ladies in Helms Alee use their own pipes to excellent effect too, breaking into gorgeous poppy vocal harmonies all throughout these ten songs, expertly melding the burly lumberjack rock with melodic indie rock hooks, almost like Melvins or Karp being fronted by Tanya Donneley from Throwing Muses at times, or Pixies crossed with Big Business. The album closes with the awesome piano-driven "Wild Notes", ending Night Terror on an ethereal, dreamy note, a perfect close to this crushing, infectious sludge-pop opus. Yeah, this is definitely one of my favorite albums from last year, and anyone into Torche, Floor, Melvins, Karp and even older indie heaviness like My Bloody Valentine, Chavez and Swervedriver should check this out immediately! The CD comes in a digipack with an eight page full color booklet.