Hexenoise – II
March 2019 – Unsigned
After the excellent catastrophic sludge
monolith that was Heavy Drugs Smashed Amps, Hexendrone began showing
signs of veering straight off the cliff and free-fall into the jagged
forest of noise, having recorded a split with Bol',
a mysterious experimental act whose only proof of existence is their
presence in said split.
A sharp-eyed reader might notice
Hexendrone not having the same name on this record. Indeed, the
Russians may have wanted to clearly separate both sounds without
creating an entirely new project, hence the Hexenoise and Hexendrone
entities. Their approach to sludge always noisy and approximative,
yet II displays remarkable forethought and composition given the
genre. Acoustic drums accompany the slow, intangible Go Home!, giving
it structure and giving me something to hold on to while my lungs and
head are crushed. A vice made of guitar distortion and bass rumble,
feeding into an ever-growing drone, constricts and suffocates before
petering out into a much needed interlude of grit crunched on a
concrete floor.
Eat My Flesh is a grating piece of
harsh noise, far removed from the mostly analogue and relatively
comforting Go Home!. Despite this, it's arguably the better composed
of the two, a challenging endeavour given the inherent chaos of harsh
noise. A rhythmic break gives the song a pulse, while the songwriting
is reminiscent of WOLD, albeit in a much more dynamic form. The vocal
cadence here is similar to some power electronics acts, a repetitive
lamentation which plays into the much more treble-heavy song by
pitch-shift.
While the change in direction and dual
identity of Hexendrone/Hexenoise are good, I'd be interested in
hearing what a combination would sound like – sludge/noise is a
common tag, yet so few bands actually execute both parts so well.
Comments
Post a Comment