Hacride - Lazarus review
| Band: | Hacride |
| Album: | Lazarus |
| Style: | Progressive death metal |
| Release date: | April 03, 2009 |
| A review by: | jupitreas |
01. To Walk Among Them
02. Act Of God
03. Lazarus
04. Phenomenon
05. A World Of Lies
06. Awakening
07. My Enemy
Like Textures, Hacride is a fairly young band on the Listenable roster specializing in a very modern form of metal which draws inspiration equally from death metal, groove, ambient and progressive. Mentioning Textures here is well warranted since Lazarus reminds me heavily of Drawing Circles, an album that I saw as being very close to perfection in 2006.
Like Textures' Drawing Circles, Lazarus is an album that mixes very expressive and often brutal passages of extreme metal with astoundingly beautiful moments of elation in the form of progressive ambiance supported by technically impressive melodic instrumentation. The aptly named "Phenomenon" is a splendid example of the latter, being indeed phenomenal at reaching spiritual ascension rarely achieved since Love And Rockets' Express. Most of the other tracks here score at least one similar spiritual bout, with "To Walk Among Them" and "My Enemy" being perhaps the most memorable of the bunch. At the same time, the heavy parts are all intelligently arranged and plentiful in memorable licks and inspired hooks. The album's rich production helps immensely in conveying the band's all-encompassing range.
Like Textures, Hacride should really focus on being spiritual and ambient rather than heavy. As powerful as the more extreme parts of this album are, the insane beauty of the softer parts completely obliterates them in every way when it comes to emotional depth. "My Enemy" could well be the very best song we will hear this year; however, the band is unwilling to fully pursue this direction throughout Lazarus.
Unlike Textures, Hacride did not release their album in 2006. Back then, Drawing Circles was a unique achievement and I did not mind that the band lacked the balls to ditch metal altogether in favor of something that would transcend genres. This is 2009 and a lot has happened since that time. Hacride should know better and for this reason, and this reason alone, Lazarus is a flawed album to me.
 | Written on 30.04.2009 by With Metal Storm since 2002, jupitreas has been subjecting the masses to his reviews for quite a while now. He lives in Warsaw, Poland, where he does his best to avoid prosecution for being so cool. |
Comments
Comments: 11
Visited by: 205 users
| Darkside Momo Retired Elite Posts: 9096  |
Yes, "My Enemy" is pretty awesome. But the whole album was less memorable than any Textures, or than their previous one for that matter...
---- My Author's Blog (in French)  "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you" "I've lost too many years now I'm stealing back my soul I am awake"
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| Dane Train Beers & Kilts Elite Posts: 8902  |
I just got this album, and wow!, it is really amazing. Between this and Blood this has been a good week for new music.
---- (space for rent)
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| DahliaRock Posts: 153  |
Mmmh.. I don't think that you can really compare it to Textures, what Textures plays is more of a Mesuggah style with a heavier sauce of progressive while these guys focus more on the intensity side with less of the Meshuggah. I think when you look at the 2 bands, their own progression is so much different. You really have to take Hacride from their first EP and trace their evolution. I thought Amoeba was insane, but this blew my mind off, especially with the opener 14 minute epic. My Enemy is by far the best thing ever happened this year!
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| Visioneerie Urban Monster Posts: 810  |
I never really noticed Listenable Records for some reason, but this year so far : Centaurus-A, Hacride, the upcoming Gorod, and the re-release of Soilwork's Chainheart Machine, seems like they've got the mojo. Can't forget that Amenta album, these guys have good taste.
---- Any man can stand adversity, but to test his character give him power - A. Lincoln
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| Thordelan Posts: 38  |
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| MetalManic Posts: 655  |
Oh man, this is definitely not the same band I first listened to a year ago (I mean this in a good way). The ambient moments are huge and it gives me that long lost Lateralus feeling. I agree with you on this one jupitreas. The band should definitely take off and solely focus on these segments of the music for future releases. Thanks for the review. The track: Phenomenon 
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| skrätte I Hate You Posts: 78  |
I definitely see similarities to Textures (an awesome band), but I still see Hacride as a totally separate entity. I can understand a mention or two of comparison, but I almost felt like this review was half for Hacride and half for Textures... which doesn't detract from the review's accuracy, honestly, and I still agree with it, overall. Lazarus is a great album. I almost want to like it more than Amoeba, and in some ways, I do. I think Amoeba and Lazarus are like fraternal twin brothers. You notice obvious differences on the surface. Both are extremely intelligent, but while one exhibits a little more strength and aggression (Amoeba), the other exhibits more focus and spirituality (Lazarus). This is definitely my favorite release of the year, so far. I've listened to it a bunch and hear tiny differences each time as I listen a little deeper.
---- [url="http://www.metalxradio.com"]  [/url]
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| jupitreas hi-fi / lo-life Staff Posts: 6660  |
Written by skrätte on 12.05.2009 at 00:21 Well, I took the Textures comparison as far as I did mainly for purely literary purposes, to have some fun with the form of the review...
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| Electric drill Posts: 2 |
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| Uirapuru Liver Failure Posts: 2955  |
For a review focused on comparisons with another band, the sound was nicely described. Althou I did not reach the spiritual ascencion feeling, the vocals are far too annoying in my opinion, ruined my sensations... Other thing.. the cover art really does kick ass!
----  ---- member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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