Pelagic Records – 24 Feb 2023
A surprising album outside of my comfort zone (FFO: cinematic metal, post-genres)
Before I start the review, a couple of grains of salt. First, I'm often not a fan of avant-garde music. Second, I'm not a huge metal guy either. Lastly, I never developed a taste for psychedelic rock of the Sixties and Seventies.
Why's that important? Well, HYPNO5E (pronounced “Hypnose”) describes themselves in alternate breaths as a psychedelic, cinematographic, or avant-garde metal band. Formed on the southern coasts of France in 2003, Sheol is their sixth LP. Frankly, I can't say that I had heard of them before this review request came to TGEFM,
So why am I reviewing Sheol? In 2023, I'm trying to force myself out of my neat “punk and hardcore shell”, and this seems sufficiently jarring to that musical shell.
From the outset, this highbrow art bears a surprising resemblance to some skate punk records of my youth. Instead of sticking a sample from Clerks or The Big Lebowski somewhere in the track, HYPNO5E inserts poetry readings from prominent poets.
The spoken word intro of “Shoel Part I: Late Sorrow” gives way to the groovy Matt Pike riffing and blast beats of “Shoel Part II: Lands of Haze”. HYPNO5E soon begins alternating between sedated arpeggios and clean vocals and distorted power chords and howled pleas.
In “Lava from the Sky”, the band adapts The Pixies' loud/quiet/loud approach to their atmospheric rock. The song begins with finger picked chords and jazzy percussion work. HYPNO5E teases the listener in the pre-chorus with hiccuping HM-2s, eventually tearing into your eardrums before slowly easing back into verses that wouldn't sound out of place on the B-side of Led Zeppelin III.
The final track, “Slow Steams of Darkness II: Solar Mist”, struts out with urgency, which is a hard fact for me to admit for a song lasting 13 goddamn minutes. Even on the quiet parts, everything is more. The drums hit harder, the guitar picking is faster, the clean vocals just sound more dire. The swells and crescendos just seem MORE.
And when the heavy parts hit? Even a jaded hardcore kid like me wants to point my finger and shout into a mic.
While a protracted listen, Sheol is a satisfying one. Much like Sleep's opus Dopesmoker, it's a great record to put on while you're working on doing chores. HYPNO5E sounds a lot like I'd imagine Explosions in the Sky would if they once were metalheads and decided to sing.
YO VINYL NERDS: Clocking in at 63 minutes, Sheol is a double LP. Despite being headquartered in Berlin, Pelagic has made some gorgeous vinyl available stateside in Solar Mist and Lava from the Sky editions. If you're in the EU/EUK (or you want some of that rare rare black vinyl), you can order from their main webstore.
Once hailing from the salty tundra of Syracuse, NY, Ben now calls the DC suburbs his home. He fell in love with punk after listening to Punk-O-Rama 3, Less Than Jake and MXPX in middle school. He loves to slam dance but is too large to stage dive.
When he's not pretending to have exquisite musical taste, he's raising two children, designing RPG products and practicing law. (Who knows if he'll ever get the hang of it.)