Hypomanie

Hypomanie is the relatively new project of Selwin, member of other bands such as Deep-pression, Isa and Zelfhaat. They are another one of the many shoegazey black metal bands which the underground seems to be awash with recently. Ever since Alcest's debut, everyone seems to be trying their hand at it. Most of them are nothing but poor imitators, merely jumping on the bandwagon not actually aware of what the whole aesthetic of what Shoegaze was about. On the other side of the coin, you have bands such as Hypomanie who are genuinely able to replicate that vibe of wistfulness and dreamy sound bands like Slowdive pioneered and fuse it with something different.

At this stage of the game, mixing Black Metal with post-punk and shoegaze is nothing startling, Alcest opened that door before everyone else, but it's spiriting to finally hear another band who are able to carry on that sound without sounding completely and utterly contrived, Musically this EP leans more to the dreamy, nostalgic side of the shoegaze spectrum rather than the sonic deluge of My Bloody Valentine.

The guitars are light and alternate between that 80's post-punky twang and pedal washed distortion of early 90's shoegaze. If you're looking for heaviness, then look elsewhere, I'd struggle to call this EP metal at all, more dream-pop in sound than anything else. There are some heavier, more metal moments in the release when the riffing takes on a heavier more Black Metal approach, but they're few and far between. At times it reminds me of the lighter moments of lifelover, the vocals are very similar to Kim Carlsson's squeaky high pitched shriek, not dissimilar to someone dragging a wire brush down a chalkboard. It's the bass which helps give the EP it's underlying post-punk feel as well, resonating through all the distortion with a constant pulsation, giving the songs a bit of muscle from which to base everything else on. The drumming sounds programmed, but it's not a hinder at all, the light cymbal splashing and restrained rhythms add to the hypnotic atmosphere if anything. The whole feel to the EP is extremely melancholic, but at the same time manages to be almost calming in nature. It's certainly on the better side of line than most bands trying their hand at shoegazey black metal today.

Hypomnie is essentially one big hypnotic wave of distortion, all the elements that should be there, are. It captures the essence of Slowdive and depressive black metal perfectly and entwines those sounds together fantastically. It wont convert shoegaze purists though as both scenes are lightyears apart, most fans of bands like Alcest and Lifelover lie in the metal scene rather than shoegaze anyway, but if you're already a fan of those types of bands or are looking for a decent introduction to the genre, you could do alot worse.

I was directed towards Hypomanie’s self-titled EP, released in 2009, due to the fact that it incorporates a large amount of post-rock and shoegaze into the old black metal style as seen on the debut full-length, ‘Sehnsucht’. As a huge fan of these types of hybrids, I decided to go against my irregular pet peeve, or habit, of not listening to anything other than full-length records and get this immediately. I wasn’t disappointed. This type of post-rock-meets-shoegaze-meets-black-metal is something I really enjoy listening to. As with this self-titled EP, I love how the sub-genre juxtaposes a typical melancholic black metal atmosphere with a warm, welcoming atmosphere driven by subtle post-rock and shoegaze elements. Songs like ‘Innocenti’ are terrific examples of what I’m talking about. This song, as well as most of the others on this rather short EP, layers two types of guitar sound over one another to create a mixture of warm sounding atmospheric tendencies alongside deeply moving, melancholic atmospherics akin to depressive black metal bands.

Ignoring the unusual introduction and outro samples to the song of a baby crying with a soothing tuneful baby toy in the background trying to lure him/her to the land of nod, this is an exquisite example of Hypomanie’s ability to be able to fuse the varying styles together well. This isn’t a one-off either. Songs like ‘Slaap Zacht’ continue the theme of generating warm sounding cleaner riffs alongside a hypnotic distorted riff akin to those found of the mesmerising debut. There is a lot of depth to the atmospheres found here on each of the songs, including ‘Herfst’, which feels sort of like an Alcest-Hypomanie collaboration. Although the song is completely instrumental, this doesn’t stop me enjoying the six minutes of slow, soothing instrumentation. Even when the distortion is brought into affect, the song still appears as relaxing as ever, just like these types of hybrids should be. The vocal displays of S. remain the same on this EP as they were on the full-length but, although his style is dissonant and raw, his voice compliments the softer textures and especially the layering of harsher elements such as the distorted riffs beneath the cleaner one on songs like ‘Slaap Zacht’.

Songs like the aforementioned definitely contain that Alcest vibe to them making this a largely accessible EP and with wider promotion, I could possibly see Hypomanie appealing to that specific league of fans even though areas like the drumming feel far more rigid than they possibly should be. In fact, the drumming could even be produced by some form of software program, maybe a drum machine of sorts. The drumming is definitely the least impressive element of this quaint EP, though on songs like ‘Zondagmorgen’ the softer approach to the instrumentation actually allows the drums to flourish despite their repetitious nature. Through the use of lightly tapping cymbals and such, the drums actually feel right at home amidst the more elegant expression of themes. They later become far more bombastic, too, with the double bass playing a pivotal role within the opening song. Though the drums feel much too shallow in general, they do not hamper the fluidity of the release.

This opening song actually expresses the well structure juxtaposed sound the best given the gradual build-up and intertwining of cleaner and harsher elements through a much improved production. I didn’t expect much to have changed from the full-length, but it has in many ways. The full-length placed more emphasis on creating darker atmospheres through the distortion and hypnotic repetition of the guitar riffs and although songs like ‘Heimwee’ tend to do the same on this EP, the production is much more airy and the cleaner aspects tend to resonate within me more clearly than they did on songs like ‘Nostalgie’, which featured on the full-length. Though ‘Heimwee’ indicates S. hasn’t completely lost touch with the sound he created on the full-length, he is much more open to expressing himself cleanly, through brighter soundscapes and with the shimmering qualities of the post-rock and shoegaze vibes, the music doesn’t feel as constrained to darkness as it did on the debut and occasionally does on songs like ‘Heimwee’. This is a tidy EP with a number of elements which could open up the door to a new future for the band. I look forward to the next album where, hopefully, S. will have refined this style and made it his own.