Awakening

The era of Hexenhaus is long ago, even their afterburner “Dejavoodoo” is already 25 years old. They received positive reviews in the German Rock Hard magazine, but I don't remember any prominently placed articles about the band. In retrospect, this is regrettable. Why? Well, “Awakening” mixes power, progressive, speed and thrash metal to a pretty good tasting cocktail. Moreover, it is probably the best argument for those who voted for Mekong Delta in the “similar artists” list. The bulky riffing, the somewhat torn song structures and the ignorance of genre borders testify to the spiritual closeness of the Swedes to the project of Ralph Hubert.

Despite the partially theatrical vocals and some dramatic or even bombastic elements, “Awakening” is still a pure metal album and no opera with some heavy guitars. The compositions sound powerful, vital and driven by the energetic passion of its creators. The diversified patterns of the tracks do not come at the expense of their accessibility. Hexenhaus have, for all their desire for wild experiments, an inner compass. This protects them from getting lost in the jungle of progressive over-ambition. Even the monumental “Necronomicon ex Mortis” does not confuse the listener, although we find slight echoes of Watchtower and consorts. No doubt, main composer Mike Wead, the Leif Edling of Hexenhaus, knew what he did when he was writing this song with its thousands facets, different vocals and an endless row of twists and turns. Yes, the part with the acoustic guitar in the centre of the song is dubious, but this detail does not worsen the song’s aroma.

The intelligently designed songs profit from a warm production. Wicked tongues may call it polished, but it is well-balanced and fits the band’s musical approach. Thomas Lundin excels with a great voice and his clear vocals shine in full glory. He is the man that makes me think of Candlemass when listening to “Awakening”, because he creates an aura of grandeur, as we know it from the early Candlemass. The degree of harshness is also comparable, but here the similarities end.

The B side has to struggle to keep up with the first half. Neither the opening instrumental nor “The Forthcoming Fall” (a tad whiney) belong to the highlights. However, I do not speak about useless contributions, these tracks still reach a solid level. Things get a bit spicier at “Sea of Blood” with its challenging, pretty aggressive guitars. Hexenhaus convince with a tight performance, technical skills, their comparatively individual approach and, by the way, with the long hair on the band picture. “The Eternal Nightmare Act II” marks the final, strong statement. Okay, it is marginally weaker than “Act I” on “The Edge of Eternity”. But no problem, we know that from the movies. Or does anyone remember a second part that was better than the first? Either way, “Awakening” is not the album of their catalogue, but still an original and good one.

Swedish tech-thrashers Hexenhaus were 2/2 by this release, and they made it 3/3 by sticking to their formula and writing sharp songs that change tempos a lot with widely-influenced guitar parts. Awakening does everything it is supposed to without falling into any obvious pitfalls, even if Thomas Lyon's vocals are stretched a little bit thin. The instrumentation is sound enough that this album turns out pretty good.

As is the case with most technical thrash, the band runs through a barrage of riffs over a medley of different time signatures, most of these excursions coming in between verses, leading up to a guitar solo. "Awakening" is a good example that kicks the record off, setting the tone for the album nicely. The guitar riffs are consistently pretty catchy, and the band does well to not noticeably recycle any licks or riffs. What's appealing about this album as well is that it doesn't have the Time Does Not Heal problem (though that album still kicks ass), in that it doesn't feel like the band is forcibly trying to throw riffs at you just for the sake of it. Most of the time, the riffs feel like they're actually adding something to the song, and only once in a while does the band go overboard with it.

The absolute epic "Necronomicon ex Mortis" caps off the A-side with serious theatricality. The band has a very firm grasp on songwriting and they work diligently not to write themselves into a corner on this song. Writing a technical thrash opus like this can be very challenging and the results are disastrous if not done well, but Hexenhaus had their wits about them. They balance simple riffing with rushes of technical, speedy thrash well. This contrast in the song structure creates a dynamic that builds tension minute after minute in the song, especially as Lyon belts out notes in between the instrumental passages.

But even as the band heals from the emphatic eleven-minute track, they still maintain excitement in the resolving songs of the B-side. "Code 29" is a well-placed instrumental and "The Forthcoming Fall" is a solid track with some spooky spoken word and brilliant guitar leads. The drumming is great on this song, too, sounding almost like a precursor to modern-day drum programming with how precise and incessant it is. For the most part, the rhythm section is not the main act, but they do their job well enough to keep the songs pumping. "Sea of Blood" is a pretty good song as well with some powerful vocals.

Although the performances, the songwriting, and the production are all up to par, there does feel like something is missing from this record that saves it from being No More Color- or Energetic Disassembly-level of technical thrash. It might be that the band doesn't sound overly original, or that none of the riffs or song structures are fantastically amazing, they're just pretty good. Either way, this is still a good release and worth the listen, but don't expect anything that revolutionizes technical thrash- look to the aforementioned records for that.

Hexenhaus came into existence after members of the speed metal outfit Maninnya Blade decided to try something more aggressive and more complex, one of whom was none other than Mike Wead, the guitar wizard who remains the finest six stringer to ever come out of Sweden after the maestro Yngwie Malmsteen. “Tribute to Insanity” was a fairly strong debut seeing the guys well able to pull out this multi-layered dark approach to the good old thrash, also introducing Wead’s unique signature style, melodic, technical and dramatic all at the same time. “The Edge of Eternity” followed the same direction by complicating things a bit with longer song-structures and more meandering riff-formulas. The band looked well equipped to join the front echelon of the progressive/technical thrash metal movement alongside Target, Sieges Even, Deathrow and Mekong Delta; however, something was missing from the guys’ repertoire to make one firmly place them on the top.

Wead and Co. didn’t have much time to carry on with their elaborate thrashy tapestries. The 90’s came with new demands and the music scene was changing rapidly, pretty much on a week-to-week basis. They only had one shot at glory, the album reviewed here, and they had to make it count. And it was mission accomplished in every department. A major change occurred in the vocal sector where the previous not very attached, unmelodic singing was dealt with, with the arrival of Thomas Lyon, an emotional clean high-strung tenor who amazingly fit the band’s progressive thrash mosaics like a glove. A short introductory instrumental (“Shadows of Sleep”) starts the saga in an imposing, atmospheric manner before the title-track hits with a blazing lead section first, Wead showing what he’s capable of; twisted riffs accompanied by the highly dramatic vocals follow suit, a marvellous symbiosis which is sustained in a jumpy mid-tempo and frequent technical accumulations; watch out for the fast-paced stroke in the second half followed by an enchanting lead section again. “Betrayed by Justice” is a more energetic shredder the speedy passages alternating with more complex intricate ones and some brilliant melodies, both from the lead and the riff department.

“Necronomicon Ex-Mortis” is probably the longest progressive thrasher in history, a 16.5-min opus which goes through many transformations commencing with some impetuous hard-hitting thrashing before labyrinthine progressive build-ups start showing up, first as jumpy hectic dashes, and later as slower, nearly doom-laden landscapes also assisted by quiet balladic interludes; more headbanging thrash comes later until Wead takes over at the end with the next in line slab of dazzling lead pyrotechnics. “Code 29” is a short instrumental piece, a display of Wead’s talents that threaten to take down the whole Shrapnel empire here. “The Forthcoming Fall” stomps through the virtuoso-prone environment with heavy ship-sinking riffage, kind of predating the more power metal-ornated wave that swept over Sweden in the coming years. “Sea of Blood” speeds up desirably, but it’s the mid-tempo parametres that dominate here again despite the several more intense digressions witnessed here and there. “Paradise of Pain” is an awesome technical thrasher, a seamless combination of fast dashy strokes and tightly woven knots of lead-driven wizardry this eventful riff-fest wrapped on with an imposing keyboard-infused doomy finale. “The Eternal Nightmare Part II” continues the doomy drama for a start, but the band move towards the faster-paced offlimits, the stylish attack reaching fever-pitch towards the middle before a breath-taking flamenco guitar pacifies the situation, and the album surrenders to a beautiful epic doomy epitaph ala Candlemass.

This was the album that actually started a very strong, long-running trend on the Swedish metal scene, a progressive power/doom metal blend which produced some of the finest works of the whole 90’s circuit. Since it was still pretty much a thrash metal opus, the laurels for the establishment of said wave went to Candlemass’ “Chapter VI”, released a year later, although traces of it (the more mid-paced ways of execution, the longer more complex song-structures, the atmospheric descents to doom, the emotional vocal feats, the stylish melodic leads, etc.) are all over this awakening which also had a very appropriately-chosen title having in mind the winds of change it brought with it. Yes, thrash was a disappearing species, at least in the Scandinavia, and those who wanted to survive the 90’s had to look for ways to adapt to the new vogues.

At least in Wead’s case this adaptation process didn’t require much; he merely changed the band name to Memento Mori and elaborated on those new elements that his last opus and the Candlemass chapter introduced. Kudos should be paid to him for sounding very old school on the next several instalments which saw him working with Candlemass members (the singer Messiah Marcolin on the Memento Mori albums, and Leif Edling on the Abstrakt Algebra project) for the further consolidation of the new Swedish sound which was later enriched with talented outfits like Memory Garden, Fifth Reason, Pathos, Veni Domine, etc. Wead resurrected Hexenhaus in 1997 for the release of “Dejavoodoo” which was well conformed with the rules of the wave, and consequently contained little thrash, straying from their roots. Another split-up followed, but in 2012 Wead decided to give the band another chance. Apart from numerous live participations in various festivals around the world, the guys haven’t shown much activity with any new material… not to worry, the old witch always has hidden tricks in her hut, and it’s just a matter of time before she unleashes them upon the poor metal souls.

Despite their parent genre hanging over the edge of the abyss by the time it would see the light of creation, Hexenhaus' third album Awakening retains the general quality of its predecessors, but also starts to explore new territory due to the addition of yet another new front man in Thomas Lyon, who had been kicking around for years in an obscure Swedish thrash outfit called Hatred. Lyon has a higher pitched, wavering voice distinct from his predecessors Tommie Agrippa and Nick Johansson, and in fact he sounds more like a John Arch of Fates Warning or Alan Tecchio of Watchtower. In fact, the entire album seems as if Mike Wead had desired to explore a more complex ground, and Awakening could be considered a solid example of progressive, technical European thrash, running in the circles of a Mekong Delta, Depressive Age, or Deathrow, or US acts Psychotic Waltz and Watchtower.

Though quite a stretch from the debut A Tribute to Insanity, Hexenhaus bear the brunt of this new direction well, and Awakening is yet another delight in their catalog to peruse, and further proof of a sound body of work that should never have been ignored by the raving tech thrash lunatics out there. The music is punchy, effective, and proficient, and as the intro "Shadows of Sleep" parts its acoustic gleanings, the title track erupts with a number of well plotted riffs on a course for the same schizophrenic madness that made one salivate over a Deception Ignored, Control and Resistance or Realm's Endless War, even if Hexenhaus are not quite so complex or bewildering in delivery. For the riff hound, there are plenty of bones to horde just in this song alone, and a superb lead sequence that cedes into dark, thrashing currents, screeches and whispers. "Betrayed (By Justice)" continues with some flowing, popping bass and wonderfully demented guitars that explode like a dynamic, melodic asylum.

Even more ambitiously, the band next lurch into the 11 minute epic "Necronomicon Ex Mortis" with a pretty large riff count of quality, and some sequences in which the synthesizer is adeptly added to create the epic atmosphere such a composition usually requires to stay fresh and inviting through its lengthy discourse. "Code 29" is a graceful, flighty instrumental which sets up the two-fisted pumping, mid-paced thrash riffs of "The Forthcoming Fall", which phase in and out of elegant power not unlike a more technical adept to Messiah Marcolin's post-Candlemass work in Memento Mori. "Sea of Blood" surges with a killer, frenetic fill riff in the verse that shifts into brilliant and savage speed metal with tiny flourishes of shred-work, and "Paradise of Pain" feels like its natural continuation, with similar guitar work. If you've enjoy the album up to this point, the remaining tracks "The Eternal Nightmare Act II" and "Incubus" will continue to titillate, cornucopias of quality and inventive riff work that draw you deeper into the band's nearly spastic madness.

Awakening is not so dire or brute as A Tribute to Insanity, and a lot more involved musically than The Edge of Eternity, but its a very natural progression. The band have not repeated themselves in the vocal chair, but they still retain enough elements of that initial savagery to bludgeon through the heightened flight of Mike Weak and Marco A. Nicosia, who manically captivate the listener with their busywork over a tight and efficient rhythm department. The mix of this record is still fairly dark, straightforward and organic like the prior albums, and by 1991, they were elevating to the top of the technical thrash/speed pool despite the rest of the genre sinking like a faulty cruise liner. There has never been enough buzz around Hexenhaus, so here is the chance to rectify that, track down their legacy and partake.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com