While listening to ‘Hail Horror’, the long-in-waiting followup to 2003’s high profile and slightly overly hyped ‘Courting Tragedy And Disaster’ from Seattle’s Himsa, I’m thinking how this album would probably fly a little under the radar of many metalheads, unless there was something of notice to be pointed out. Not only in metal, but in music in general, people know what they like and stick to it, and don’t feel the need to really give much of anything else a chance. The devil you know, I suppose, and it’s a real shame. Sometimes the things that prove to be the most satisfying, are the things that are right under your upturned nose.

Himsa have made a decent name for themselves pretty early in the game, and have worked hard through lineup changes and personal difficulties to get where they are. Even without a new model of wheel being designed here, I can admire Himsa for taking a chance or two on ‘Hail Horror’. This is most definitely a metal album, not just a carbon copy metalcore addition to the dung heap to be written off as trendy crap. The hair has gotten longer, the faces scruffier, and the sound focused more on making a lasting impression overall rather than a quick-fix for the Ozzfest masses.

The noticeable lack of gallop riffs is refreshing, likewise, the multitude of twin harmonics to be heard is also easy on the ears for those of us who are into that sort of guitar work. It doesn’t sound like Himsa are trying to impress anyone with flash and frenzy, although there are moments where the leads fly in complex, wildly patterned directions. Usually it succeeds and adds a little extra flair to something that would otherwise be a little on the basic side (’Wolfchild’), or simply heightens an already tense experience (’They Speak In Swarms’). The slower, sludgy feel of opener ‘Anathema’ was a nice way to start things out as well. The musicianship is tight, effective, and the production is pleasantly warm and accommodating to the material. Very nice job there.

While I respect that Himsa avoided getting predictably heavier just to maintain some imaginary credibility, and preferred to stick to knocking out 10 solid tunes… that’s all they are. Ten solid thrashy tunes, and not much else. The vocals in particular are terribly one-dimensional, and not exactly spectacular to begin with. This very average sounding delivery isn’t helped by lack the of variation in phrasings or rhythmic accents, and don’t really deviate much from the hoarse and hardcore-styled path.

Also, the songs themselves don’t stick out from each other individually, and suffer from an absence of catchy groove. You can totally thrash to a good 65% of the music here, and just nod slightly for the remaining 35%, but once it’s all over, only a few riffs remain in memory. You can tell some kind of train just went by, but once it’s gone, it’s gone. In their attempt to avoid a more predictable course of action, they’ve sacrificed catchy, adhesive riffs and hooks in favor of a more no-nonsense execution that, frankly, is a little plain at times. Considering the time spent since their debut, this comes across as moderately underwhelming when it’s all said and done.

So, there’s good news, and bad news. The good news is Himsa aren’t just another sheep in the herd of dyed black hair and hoodies. All ten tunes feature a fair amount of strong ideas, and show the band to be very talented musicians, and songwriters. The bad news is while this is a very well-performed album, it’s too low-key, reserved, and restrained. Limits could have been pushed without going over the top in many songs. The energy reaches a certain level and doesn’t go any higher, and the comfortable air of ‘Hail Horror’ is almost too easy, as if they wrote it just to function while making it a point to avoid being derivative.

Enjoyable? Absolutely, but I have to call a spade a spade, and Himsa played it just a little too safe on this one. Heaviness or extremity isn’t the issue, it’s the energy, and it would be nice to hear them break through the glass ceiling and expand a bit more on their sound, if possible. Nothing sucks on ‘Hail Horror’, and it’s totally worth checking out if you want to get into some good thrash, but ‘As The Palaces Burn’ this is not.

This entry was posted by Dekompoze on Sunday, 29th January, 2006 at 23:53 and is filed under Reviews, Himsa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response below. You may view a   printable version of this page. You may download this page in   PDF format.