My Spanish is bad. Not in the “oh I’m a bit rusty” way; more in the “I thought ‘sombras’ meant ‘some bras’ until this morning” way. And yet, none of that seemed to matter when I listened to Helladdict’s self-titled debut EP. That’s the thing about metal: it doesn’t care if you paid attention in high school language class. Helladdict’s self-titled debut EP screams in all dialects. And this EP? It screams very, very well.
Helladdict is a Chilean metal band that has clearly decided subtlety is for cowards. They’ve dropped a three-track, tightly coiled fist of a debut that doesn’t waste time trying to be trendy or digestible. This isn’t lo-fi metal for your sleep playlist. This is teeth-clenching, boot-to-the-concrete rebellion with riffs that would’ve scared your parents in 1987 and probably still do now. It’s nostalgic, but not in the “remember when?” way. More like “remember how everything was on fire? It still is.”
Let’s begin with “Sombras”, which translates to Shadows. The track opens like a slasher movie villain slowly unsheathing a knife; atmospheric, brooding, and eerily calm before it lunges at you. The guitars grind with just enough menace to feel like they’re circling you, and the vocals feel less sung than summoned. It’s a mood piece, but the mood is “trapped in a bunker with only anger and reverb.”
Next up: “Puño De Hierro” or Iron Fist, which is either a Marvel reference or, more likely, a thinly veiled threat. This is the moment Helladdict really comes into focus. It’s the musical equivalent of kicking down the door of a corrupt government building and shouting, “We have riffs!” There’s a relentless stomp to it; somewhere between the primal stomping of something fierce and a demolition crew discovering double bass pedals. It’s not just aggressive. Rather, it’s almost ceremonial in how it marches forward, like it’s leading a revolution and also playing its own entrance music.
And finally, there’s “Nuclear War”, which, I should clarify, is not a metaphor. This track is about the end of the world, and it sounds like it. Imagine if Slayer scored a Cold War PSA. It’s chaotic, fast, and unapologetically bleak. The production here does something clever: it doesn’t try to polish the chaos. Instead, it lets the distortion pile up like fallout. It’s less “radio-friendly single” and more “final broadcast before the sirens hit.”
But here’s the twist: underneath all the noise, the rage, the “we set our distortion pedals to extinction” vibe, there’s something oddly beautiful happening. Because Helladdict isn’t just doing retro metal cosplay. They’re reaching into the bones of a genre often written off as juvenile or regressive and pulling out something articulate.
And this is where the whole “language doesn’t matter” thing stops being a cute anecdote and becomes the point. Because while I don’t understand every lyric, I understand the feeling. The frustration. The hunger. The sense that something needs to change, and fast. And that’s the weird magic of metal, especially when done this well; it doesn’t ask for permission to make you feel something. It just does.
Helladdict’s self-titled debut EP isn’t long, or flashy, or even all that varied. What it is, is honest. It’s three tracks of focused, clenched-jaw catharsis from a band that clearly knows its history and refuses to repeat it without setting it on fire first. If this is the start of something, then it’s the kind of start you should be paying attention to; most especially if you like your music angry, loud, and fluent in rebellion.
If this project interests you: please learn Spanish. I feel like they’re saying something worth the lessons.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for publications in the US and former lead writer of Atop The Treehouse. Reviews music, film and TV shows for media aggregators.
