Band:	Hexen
Album:	Being And Nothingness
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	May 28, 2012
A review by:	wormdrink414

01. Macrocosm
02. Grave New World
03. Defcon Rising
04. Private Hell
05. Walk As Many, Stand As One
06. Stream Of Unconsciousness
07. Indefinite Archetype
08. The Nescient
09. Nocturne
    1 - Opus 55 No 1 In Fmin
    2 - Out Of Reach
    3 - Existential Crisis
    4 - Entrance Of The Absurd
    5 - The Unbearable Lightness Of Being
    6 - With Salvation I Persist
    7 - Elegy Of The Night
    8 - End In Perplexity

"Revivalist thrash" might not be the best way to describe what bands like Hexen have been doing recently. By now, the image that term ultimately conjures up is one of a thickening pack of denimed-out, canned beer shaking youths huddling around thrash's corpse, firing up their defibrillators, reviving it back to life, letting it get up and dust itself off, then defibrillating it again. And then again. And now again... Again.

"Over-revived" thrash is more like it here. Yeah, I've written fondly about a lot of young bands who do similar things, and done so recently, but only because the groups in question (Warbringer, Diamond Plate, Havok, etc.) have done their respective things with their own attitude and they've consistently done it foremost in the spirit of fun. These guys kinda have that and sometimes seem like they do that (respectively), but only to an extent. This is a "serious" theatrical and hyper-melodic sort of thing for the most part?technicality and melodrama seem to be the priorities here over aggression and playfulness--and that kind of shit can be a real bummer when it's not done inordinately well. And, with Being and Nothingness, I can't quite bring myself to type out that it was.

No question that these guys do have chops though. Their skill as musicians is laudable and whatnot (the drumming, in particular, is excellent), it's just the end result of all their soloing and "epic," more progressive interludes all ends up coming together in a big bucket of meh. It's kinda boring. You'll be able sit down, tug at your beard, bob your head a bit and say "hmmm, alright, alright" a bunch, but after a few tracks it becomes clear enough that that's probably all you're going to do. There probably won't be any reckless furniture-kicking and beer sloshing to this, and that's all I want most of the time when tossing on a thrash album.

Bottom line is you likely won't come out of your cave feeling anything but whatever bullshit fulfillment you might get out of bobbing your head, tugging your beard, and saying "hmm, alright, alright" after listening to this. Think Testament meets Exodus and a side-dish of flavorless astronaut paste.