Hell Bent for Letters is the second full-length album by the Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

-based literary-metal band Blöödhag

BlöödHag

BlöödHag is a death metal band from the Pacific Northwest region of the Seattle, Washington. They play very short songs of which the lyrics consist of biographical and bibliographical information, observations and abstractions of Science Fiction, Fantasy and seminal Horror authors.-History:BlöödHag...

. It is their first release for Jello Biafra

Jello Biafra

Jello Biafra is an American musician, spoken word artist and leading figure of the Green Party of the United States. Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys...

's Alternative Tentacles

Alternative Tentacles

Alternative Tentacles is an independent record label originally based in San Francisco, California and was established in 1979. It was originally used as the label name by the Dead Kennedys for the self-produced single "California Über Alles", and after realizing the potential for an independent...

 label. It was produced and recorded by the band's guitarist, Dr. J.M. McNulty, under his less formal name of Jeff McNulty.

The album title is a pun on the Judas Priest

Judas Priest

Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...

 album Hell Bent for Leather. One reviewer described the album by suggesting, "[i]magine history class taught by GWAR

GWAR

Gwar is a satirical heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia, United States, in 1984. The band is best known for its elaborate science fiction/horror film inspired costumes, obscene lyrics and graphic stage performances, which feature humorous enactments of politically and morally taboo...

, and it's still not quite enough to capture the essence of what Blöödhag bring to the table."

As with their past back catalog, all of the songs on Hell Bent for Letters honor various science fiction and similar genre writers, including Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams

Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...

, Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

, and Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...

.

Track listing

1. "Gene Wolfe
   Gene Wolfe
   Gene Wolfe is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying into the religion. He is a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the...
   
   "
2. "Robert Silverberg
   Robert Silverberg
   Robert Silverberg is an American author, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple nominee of the Hugo Award and a winner of the Nebula Award.-Early years:...
   
   "
3. "Douglas Adams
   Douglas Adams
   Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
   
   "
4. "James Blish
   James Blish
   James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
   
   "
5. "Anne McCaffrey
   Anne McCaffrey
   Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-born Irish writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award...
   
   "
6. "Orson Scott Card
   Orson Scott Card
   Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...
   
   "
7. "Iain M. Banks"
8. "Edgar Allan Poe
   Edgar Allan Poe
   Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
   
   "
9. "Philip Jose Farmer
   Philip José Farmer
   Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
   
   "
10. "Michael Swanwick
    Michael Swanwick
    Michael Swanwick is an American science fiction author. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he began publishing in the early 1980s.-Biography:...
    
    "
11. "Frederik Pohl
    Frederik Pohl
    Frederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years — from his first published work, "Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna" , to his most recent novel, All the Lives He Led .He won the National Book Award in 1980 for his novel Jem...
    
    "
12. "Thomas M. Disch
    Thomas M. Disch
    Thomas Michael Disch was an American science fiction author and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book – previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book" – in 1999, and he had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W...
    
    "
13. "Greg Bear
    Greg Bear
    Gregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution...
    
    "
14. "Franz Kafka
    Franz Kafka
    Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
    
    "
15. "Madeleine L'Engle
    Madeleine L'Engle
    Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her young-adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time...
    
    "
16. "Jack Womack
    Jack Womack
    Jack Womack is an American author of fiction and speculative fiction. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter, and works as a publicity manager for the Orbit and Yen imprints of Hachette Book Group USA....
    
    "

Musical personnel

• Prof. J.B. Stratton - vocals
• Sir Zachary Orgel - bass
• Dr. J.M. McNulty - guitars, "additional sounds" (as Jeff McNulty)
• Amb. Brent Carpenter - drums
• Jeremy Enigk - keyboards

Technical Personnel

• Jeff McNulty - producer, engineer
• Eric Carnell - assistant engineer
• Jon Ervie - assistant engineer
• "Greedy" Greg Williamson - mix engineer