Hexenoise – II

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.