Australia and Scandinavia may be at opposite ends of the Earth, but the black metal highway to hell has burned its fiery path between them. The blasphemous tirades and blast-furnace musical outrage of Burzum, Emperor, Mayhem, Darkthrone, etc., have found a horde of willing converts Down Under, and birthed a fledgling scene there that has yielded the likes of Bestial Warlust, Abominator and Destroyer 666. Most of these bands have remained on the far fringes of the underground - and thankfully steered clear of the arson and murder of the "Lords of Chaos" reign of terror in Norway in the early 90s. But Australia's new satanic minions, the fittingly named Hellspawn, may just make the legions take notice when they unleash their debut album in August on Rotten Records.Formed as a side band by members of Australian extremists Damaged, Order of Chaos and others - and undeterred by near constant line-up turmoil - the Melbourne-based quintet have evolved into a formidable black metal killing machine over the past three-plus years.

Brutality defined with the fire-breathing vocals of Nekroslayer (a.k.a. Matt Sanders, drummer with Damaged), chainsaw riffs of guitarist Masochist and a veritable stampede of double-bass drum mayhem, yet sophisticated in its complex arrangements and hint of classically-inspired grandeur, Hellspawn's sonic fury rivals that of "In The Nightside Eclipse"-era Emperor. "We were all friends from other bands and had idea to come up with a brutal death metal band," said Sanders. "When we got Masochist, he was more into black metal and when he started writing his riffs everything changed. I think there's a bit more going on with black metal, especially when you combine elements of death metal. And the themes were more tied to that style. Once we were done with the album, we were pretty impressed with the way it all worked out. "Hellspawn is pretty full-on," he adds. "There was no mission to make it anything like 'the fucking brutalist band ever.' There is some mellow, acousticy stuff and atmospheric keyboards, but all in all, it's pretty intense."It's also provocative and unrepentantly outrageous. Without the usual Nordic lore and Viking mysticism to draw from, Hellspawn tracks like "Lords of Eternity," "Ancient Possession," "Heirs to the Throne" and "Realm of the Black Angels" stick to the black metal basics of "satanism and occultism and general debauchery," according to Sanders."It's a collection of different topics, all dark of course," he said, from serial killers to satanic orgies, ritual sacrifice, black masses, medieval warfare and witchcraft. "Outside the band I've been into a lot of satanic stuff, occultism - books and the like," he explains. "It's more or less a full-on interest in satanism and the fact I was brought up in an extremely Christian family and had to go to church and was told this was the way it was. It turned into having a hatred in Christianity because it was trying to put me in a hole." Anyone who doesn't get the message from the music will get a not so subtle reminder if they see Hellspawn live - something the band promises to do more of after the album is released and the line-up solidifies. "We've got the full spikes and leather," Sanders said. "Onstage, I've got four big upside-down crosses with black ram skulls on the top with devil horns, pentagrams and all that sort of shit, I do a lot of blood vomiting. "It's all black and pretty full-on we're trying incorporate as much imagery as possible to fit exactly what the music's all about. Live it's full tilt, in your face and I just go completely nuts until I have a bloody tumor popping out of my head. "Hellspawn have played around Australia and are planning and full tour Down Under later this year, but they aspire to sow their seeds of evil well beyond their homeland."Touring in the states and Europe is what band's main goal is," said Sanders. "I've been doing extreme metal for a long, long time, nearly 13 years [with Damaged], so it's about time. We've got something that I think has the possibility of doing reasonably OK if we get the word out there."