Hell 2 is not the first album from Austin's Blank Hellscape, but it's certainly the most fully-realized. OK, at least it's the LONGEST. The self-professed three-piece nightmare band knocked around the claustrophobic end of the house show circuit for a longish spell but right around pre-'dermic times, the trio of Ethan Billips, Max Deems, and Andrew Nogay have morphed into a multi-dimensional synapse-snapper with little regard for genre nor their own self-preservation. On that front, Hell 2 was echelons in the making; it would not be an exaggeration to say the writing/recording/editing process was arduous and lengthy enough it nearly took Blank Hellscape out of the game for good. But before you declare, "better luck next time", strap yourself in to your favorite listening chair/apparatus and bask in this sprawling double album, to these ears, an uncanny musical amp.
