For the band, my name, and also life, is clearly hell. 

The Boston-based, critically acclaimed indie rock band, Kal Marks, released their fifth album, My Name Is Hell on August 5th, 2022. The longstanding underground trio had dissolved in 2020, but was reassembled as a quartet by the band’s singer-guitarist Carl Shane for the creation of their fifth project. Known for their heavy and loud sound, the band delivers just that on the 11 tracks of this album. 

“My Life Is A Freakshow” opens the album with banging drums, heavy guitar riffs, and growling lyrics, expressing exacerbation and anger, the repetition of the words “my life is a freakshow” looping for about the last third of the song, setting the tone for the album from the get-go. 

A swift transition launches the song “Shit Town.” Anger expressed towards one person, continuing to state that they aren’t coming home, they aren’t coming around, perhaps directed at a partner or paternal figure, which is just an extension of the horrible things in this shit town. The song’s lyrics, while over ambivalent sounding guitar strums, are screamed and ranted in anger. 

“Everybody Hertz” opens up loud, with screams low and high pitched, launching into a more melodic guitar strum. Despite this melodic relief, the song mentions suicide, and emphasizes how much pain life can be. “New Neighbor” has a melancholic eerie feel to it. Drums, guitars, and spooky-sounding synths are in the background of this song. 

The titular track, “My Name Is Hell,” screeches on the opener, and continues with loud guitars throughout it, as the song emphasizes how recognizable painful life is, asking “My name is hell, don’t you know me so well?”

“Ovation” opens with a frantic eerie guitar strum, and launches into a more melodic guitar strum. The angry, fearful song, features the singer screaming “shut up” multiple times in a row. 

The final track on the project, “Bored Again,” finishes the album with an angry rant about being bored in a current situation, while determined to find a way to find joy. Heavy guitars and riffs play up the thematic elements in the song. 

Their fifth project, in a variety of ways, screams and describes the way in which life can be painful. Quite often, the band juxtaposes a more melodic sound over deeply angry and dark lyrics. For the band, My Name, and also life, is clearly hell.