With ‘Manegarmr’ it is clear Hessian have worked on honing a formula rather than trying to rewrite the wheel. Their brand of metallic hardcore isn’t going to set the scene alight, but it’s more than decent enough. Hailing from Belgium (yes, there is an Amenra member involved; guitarist Levy Seynaeves plays bass in the country’s premier heavy act), Hessian have crafted an album here that plays as much to their strengths as songwriters as musicians.
Throughout there is a sense that the band are a settled unit, with opening tracks ‘Ascension’ and ‘Serpent’s Whisper’ setting out the band’s stall early on. There is some subtle development in tone throughout further tracks. Particularly noteworthy is the fantastic bass sound in ‘Plague Monger’ and the choral backing vocals that turn up in ‘Mother of Light’, the final, and finest, track on the album. There’s enough clarity that Hessian are even able to dabble with elements of atmospheric black metal via ‘Vamacara’ and doom via ‘Father of Greed’ without upsetting their modus operandi even a jot. The overriding feeling remains of a band in control of their tools. This isn’t flashy or original, just devilishly focused.
Unfortunately this focus almost goes into autopilot towards the end of the album. There’s the leaden, overly repetitive ‘Swallowing Nails’ for starters, a track which also carries the rather distasteful air of a bad nu-metal throwback thanks to the breakdown guitar riff. ‘Hollow Eyes’, meanwhile, is so un-noteworthy that it manages to make a point of its forgettable nature. More generally, whilst the hints at more interesting directions mentioned earlier are intriguing, they aren’t developed enough to prevent this from becoming anything more than just another in a long line of solid, but unspectacular, albums of this type.
So, whilst Hessian, may pack more of a punch than many bands ploughing this furrow, ultimately ‘Manegarmr’ is fairly unessential. If you want a record that frequently sounds like it’s going to punch your brains out then this might just be for you, but you’ll be able to get a couple of punches in yourself whilst listening.
‘Manegarmr’ is out now via Southern Lord.
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Throughout there is a sense that the band are a settled unit, with opening tracks ‘Ascension’ and ‘Serpent’s Whisper’ setting out the band’s stall early on. There is some subtle development in tone throughout further tracks. Particularly noteworthy is the fantastic bass sound in ‘Plague Monger’ and the choral backing vocals that turn up in ‘Mother of Light’, the final, and finest, track on the album. There’s enough clarity that Hessian are even able to dabble with elements of atmospheric black metal via ‘Vamacara’ and doom via ‘Father of Greed’ without upsetting their modus operandi even a jot. The overriding feeling remains of a band in control of their tools. This isn’t flashy or original, just devilishly focused.
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