Album Review: Hellyeah - Welcome Home

When metal supergroup Hellyeah were laying down their sixth album, no-one could have imagined it would be the final recordings of legendary drummer Vinnie Paul. Tragically, before Welcome Home could be released, Vinnie passed away last June. But what a send off it turns out to be.

It goes without saying that the man who put the power behind Pantera absolutely slays, and from thrash-fuelled opener 333, to the grooving riffs of At Wicks End, the big man proves why he was one of the greats. And when Skyy And Water sees the band deliver a drumless goodbye to Vinnie, his absence from the track is as emotional as it is deafening.

The album ends with the drummer speaking the lines which would become his epitaph, “A good time is a good time, a bad time is a bad time, and a wonderful time is irreplaceable.” Welcome Home is definitively a wonderful time, and a fitting farewell to an irreplaceable metal hero.

Verdict: 4/5