The Revenge Ride

With "Unorthodox", Krabathor dropped one hell of a death metal cinder block upon the scene back in the day. Not only was this a banging piece of glorious underground metal, it was followed by a string of impressive live shows, and I know this for a fact, having seen them open for Malevolent Creation and Master around the time. The future looked bright for the boys, and then Bruno left to form Hypnos. I was curious for sure, because with "Unorthodox" still in mind and that first Hypnos EP being promising, I had expectations. And those expectations were only met halfway by the full length. Not bad, but a bit so-and-so. Needless to say, my interest waned quickly. Until recently I decided to give matters another go, and bought their second album. 20 years after its release, OK, but as with sex and pizza: better late than never, I guess.

In style, Hypnos find themselves bang in the middle of those crossroads where the early releases of Hypocrisy, Unleashed, Terrorizer and Sinister meet. Hypnos present us with a style of death metal where blastbeats, gruff roaring vocals alternating with savage screams, and dive-bomb guitar leads reign supreme, and I've got to admit that they deliver it with gusto, regularly making me think of old Krabathor, which isn't really a surprise, I guess. As with Bruno's (back then) former band, the raging death metal sections are counterpointed by slower parts and subtle melodies, without losing sight of the intensity of the music. It all has a pretty rad old school vibe emanating from it, and the band sounds more inspired as on the album that preceded this one. There are nods to early 90's Carcass and Napalm Death scattered throughout the album, which is certainly a cool touch, one I can totally appreciate, for sure.

I felt a lot less appreciation for the slower paced tracks on here. Where Krabathor knew how to write a fierce slow burner of a death metal track, Hypnos just fails miserably at it. Both "Journey into Doom" and "I Am the Wind" are snoozefests to put even the most persistent insomniac into a perpetual coma. These two offerings don't add anything of value, they only break up the momentum created by the faster cuts, which is a shame, really. What's also a shame is the acoustic guitar interlude "Lost". Yes, an acoustic piece on a metal album is cute and sensitive and what have ya, but the only thing this does for me is bring to mind the catchphrase on an add for an old Fu Manchu album: "acoustic guitars aren't really guitars". You won't hear me denying that.

These gripes aside, I still think this is a sturdy death metal album worth the time and effort. Bolstered in a cool, earthy production job that does not overdo it on the digital tricks, it manages to get in a fair few punches, as long as it stays in the territories high on energy and aggression. From the moment the foot goes off the accelerator, they've lost me, I'm afraid.