Hyenism - Extractión (EP 2022)
by Flork
With December in full motion and the Christmas holidays around the corner, it can be somewhat difficult to keep a sane headspace, at least one that’s not overly cluttered with the stress of shopping and the resulting gouge in the bank account. And so, as I return from Shopping Palace in the deep industrial wasteland on the edge of Bratislava, carrying a migraine the size of Montreal and „Vianoce, Vianoce prichádzajú” on repeat mode in my head, not to mention €336.25 EUR lighter in my wallet, I find it almost comical to be reviewing a black metal album in the midst of this season of commercial hell. But perhaps this is what the Florkster is in need of at this moment, a heavy dose of growl and mayhem to settle his nerves. How else am I to survive the holidays?
I have to admit that I like listening to Extractión, a twenty-nine and a half minute composition, which is divided into nine parts of varying length and speed, but mainly fast and chaotic. It’s an interesting work that combines the usual atmospheric elements of black metal music, and although it fringes on blackgazing at various points of the Ep, it still stays very much within the realms of the genre.
But let’s get to the nitty-gritty. The album opens quite cooly with 0th Act and gets progressively heavier with Atavistic Soul and Thornapple. Thornapple brings a seemingly impenetrable wall of sound to the forefront after a minute or two of a slowed-down interlude. This is followed by several minutes of chaotic frenzy in Eater of Sins, and by this point my migraine feels like an aneurysim ready to explode. But don’t get me wrong, it’s all good. And as I said above, I like this album, yet I can’t find words or reason why to explain my opinion. I just do. In fact, their 2017 Ep Wolfram III was nominated for the best Slovak metal album in the category of „Hard and Heavy“ in the Radio_Head awards in 2017. So following-up on this achievement is a bit of a hard act to follow, yet Hyenism seems to manage it.
After Eater of Sins arrives a shorter, but very cool bridge between the heavier moments called Arsenic Plains. There are fewer vocals at this point as the guitars take over, creating a thought-provoking interlude of uncertainty before plunging towards the abyss in Eskapism. At this point the album becomes extremely heavy and deep with everything moving at light speed, especially with the higher vocals at the end. The remaining 7 minutes of Extractión are equally as fast, interspersed with brief moments of clarity, like coming out of a long-drawn psychotic episode just to be thrown back moments later into the pits of dark insanity. And as I look out the window and see the last of today‘s daylight fade, I suddenly feel better and more prepared to face the winter soltice and the approaching holiday season. Maybe I will survive.
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