Ukrainian Thrashers HELL:ON that started out as HELLION back in 2005, have come to the point when a band’s 3rd album – without exception, should always be THAT album for band members that pretty much would remove some obstacles in front of them for a wider success. Does HELL:ON’s "Age Of Oblivion" represent all that for the band content-wise then? No, if I can be this sincere enough with all of you. It does not help them much either to have Jeff Waters’ (of ANNIHILATOR) extra input on the record as a guest guitar shredder (just in one song titled ‘My Doll’), although it’s no denying it’s always kinda ‘nice’ and ‘cool’ to get some famous musicians featured for your albums. HELL:ON combine both old and new within the world of Thrash Metal, sounding partly delightfully old school and partly awfully modern for my picky taste. I am totally ok myself with both schools when it’s done well and brings out the passion for doing your stuff seriously enough. However, the main problem for the HELL:ON guys is they really don’t know where to draw the line when it comes down to pleasing the Thrash fans who played their METALLICA, EXODUS, LEGACY, etc. tapes nonstop back in the day – day after day, ’til they were totally worn-out, or the fans of Thrash who were still in their diapers when METALLICA got the recordings finished for their debut album "Kill ‘Em All". Keeping this in mind, HELL:ON’s "Age Of Oblivion" leaves people with mixed feelings really. Vocalist Olexandr Bayev isn’t able to shine too much either with his unfortunately monotonous vocal performance, and their lyrical contribution of the songs appears to be that specific area where they should improve quite drastically indeed, in order to consider printing lyrics for their CD booklets in the future again. Their lyrics are simply naive and badly written on "Age Of Oblivion". However, despite the guys’ obvious skills to play relatively well together and having a few occasional good and promising moments within some of their songs on this record that should even be highlighted for their goodness, unfortunately lotsa things will still be left for them for improvements on their next release. www.facebook.com/hellonofficial, www.msrprod.ru, www.myspace.com/msrprod