Protest Against Sanity

No, I do not know what a "Hwwauoch" is supposed to be either.

I'll admit to sleeping on Hwwauoch with their first two releases, but their third has swung my opinion on the project heavily. Compared to the other Prava Kollektiv projects, they stray away from spacey effects laden atmospheric black metal and instead make music that's still raw and reverby but much more guitar and bass oriented. It's dissonant, but it's less of a Deathspell Omega or Wormlust kind of dissonant and closer to Leviathan or the more frenzied parts Blut aus Nord's 777 - Sect(s). And despite being structured rather conventionally, this album's tone is absolutely bonkers. The raw sound, fast tempo, shrill lead guitar, wild bass guitar work, and manic vocals make Protest Against Sanity an absolute mind grinding trip which I'm sure was their intention if the album and track titles were to imply anything.

Protest Against Sanity sounds...well, insane. It's got the same tone as having your brain psychically vivisected by demonic aliens and I love it for it. There's a lot of stand out parts to the music and the riffs are real awesome. Plus you can very often hear the bass guitar just play its own lines separate from the guitars' rhythm. But the most poignant element would have to be the vocals which tie everything else in together. Obviously, no lyrics available which is par for course for the Prava Kollektiv, but what matters more is it drives home the feeling of complete and total madness. The vocalist's screeches, growls, and howls can be favorable compared to the likes of Khanate's Alan Dubin, Rainer Landfermann's performance on Bethlehem's second album, Silencer's Nattramn (but better), and even some shades of the harsh vocals used by Anaal Nathrakh's Dave Hunt. It's impossible to determine whether vocalist's shrill tone is supposed to represent the tormentor or the victim of this mental assault; possibly both? Either way, it's the perfect keystone for this mad adventure.

From the intro riff of "Cryptosphere" to final notes of "Eternalism", Protest Against Sanity is a wild trip and has definitely woken me up to how unique Hwwauoch are among the Prava Kollektiv. This is definitely one of the strongest albums put out by this circle to date and in fact is one of the best black metal albums from 2020. Fans of Blut aus Nord, Leviathan, or Mystikaos projects like Skaphe should definitely give this a listen.