Band:	So Hideous
Album:	Laurestine
Style:	Black metal, Post-metal
Release date:	October 16, 2015
Guest review by:	Alex F

01. Yesteryear
02. Hereafter
03. Relinquish
04. The Keepsake
05. Falling Cedars
06. The True Pierce
07. A Faint Whisper

Opening with the gentle lull of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and slowly building into a magnificently emotive melding of shrieked vocals and tremolo picked guitars, So Hideous do not hide their influences nor desired direction on this album. Among the quite wide array of listed tags on the group's bandcamp page, the two that hold the most merit seem to be "orchestral" and "black metal". Now I prefer the term orchestral to symphonic in this case for a number of reasons, mostly because the band holds very little in the way of similarity to the artists at the forefront of symphonic black metal, but rather pave their own path.

While bands like Dimmu Borgir and Limbonic Art utilize heavy and often out of place synths to achieve the "epic" symphonic elements they so obviously desire, So Hideous take a much different direction. The synths are sparse, and nearly only manifest during calm interludes, and the meat of the album achieves this orchestral attribute purely through structure. The score direction, chord progressions, and overall development of each song has a colossal influence from standards of late 18th century composers, showing a far more complex understanding of influence than the less impressive acts within the style.

Thoughtful as the song-writing may be, it only serves its purpose if it is executed properly, and this begs the question, does the music hold up to such an advantageous intent? My answer would be almost irrefutably yes. The epic guitar leads never grow stale, despite never straying from severe emotional context. The album is constantly building to a climax and falling back to a lull, with each peak being complemented by entrancing troughs. This aspect can most closely be compared to post-rock artists in the vein of God Is An Astronaut. Constantly waiting in tension for the harmony to erupt in a magnificent display of nostalgic sorrow coupled with hope, So Hideous have an excellent grasp on the theatric.

All is not perfect however, as at times it seems the music is too predictable. Upon the initial listen I was far more impressed than on subsequent ones. To me it stands as an album through which you gain all understanding of the music in one play-through, and repeated visits serve only to degrade the initial opinion. This is not a terrible shortcoming, however constantly knowing what is coming next detracts heavily from the complexity the band initially establish.

So Hideous have achieved the representation of emotion that so many artists yearn and strive to, but never accomplish. While the melding of different genres is done seamlessly, and thus create a relatively unique sound on the album, all of the elements could be found in the respective genres. This leads me to believe that the group still has some searching to do in order to create a truly unique sound, however as it stands they have individual enough of an identity to warrant a visit from all fans of the style.