Hardcore Vanilla is the third release from Hellbent and their first album for Invisible Records. As such, it’s peppered with appearances from many of that label’s other artists, including Meg Lee Chin, Raymond Watts of Pig, and the ever-present Martin Atkins. This is generally a good thing since it allows for some impressive joint efforts and steers the material away from Hellbent’s earlier efforts, which were little more than shameless copies of the band’s predecessors, in particular Skinny Puppy. Certain songs are still very dated — “Jet Boy Machine” would have sounded great in the early ’90s — but on the whole it’s a competent and polished album. Hellbent is still lacking the necessary spark to separate from their faceless contemporaries, but this is a step in the right direction. – Jim Harper