Ελληνικά
Genre: Post Metal/Ambient
Country: France
Label: Debemur Morti
Year: 2014
You know that feeling you get, when you listen to an amazing new release by a relatively underground band, right? It’s something that makes you wanna bust all your friends’ chops about how magnificent and yet underestimated this album is. We’re all friends here in Metal Invader, sharing a common passion about music. Hyperion is one of the best post metal albums released in 2014 and I want to share my joy with the rest of the gang.
The irony of this situation is that the album is far from being joyful. On the contrary, it sounds like its’ creators are conveying their darkest, most intimate and painful thoughts in a really sincere way. It’s not meant for everybody. It’s definitely not meant for people that download countless discographies, only to listen to them once (at best). Hyperion is one of those albums you need to listen to, many times and without any distractions.
While listening to the opening track circumpolaris, you get a good idea about what you should expect. Huge doomy riffs, accompanied by melancholic melodies, guitars with YOB references (at least sound-wise), ambient keyboards that play a big part in the esthetic of DIRGE’s sound and a singer who is obviously agitated about something.
I would really love to know the album’s lyrics, but no matter how much I searched the internet, I didn’t manage to find anything. However, there’s something about Marc T.’s vocals, whether they are clean or as angry as the Hulk, which leads me to believe that the lyrics are not about something pleasant.
As for the female vocals heard on Venus claws, as well as the general derangement the song emits, I can easily say that they creep in the path of Thomas Gabriel Fischer. Hyperion under glass… I can’t say whether it’s the album’s best moment but I can definitely say that it’s a personal favorite. You will get completely hooked on its’ intoxicating bass line that –as the late Peter Steele would say- hits you over the head with a fur-covered sledgehammer. The final track remanentie has the same use as a joint after an all night binge… it cools you down. And a joint (or a lot of them as it seems) is the only obvious explanation I can give for the band’s choice to make this song, which is basically a melody repeated over and over with some spacey psychedelic passages on the background ,last this long (16:27).
Kidding aside, all songs have long durations, in order for DIRGE to have the space to arrange their songs based on the teachings of the post rock philosophy. With parts that gradually, and with the addition of multiple layers, evolve into something different and are led to a climax.
As you may have already noticed, this is a review about a post metal album and the name of the towering NEUROSIS didn’t come up. And that’s because although DIRGE may be influenced by them, unlike a lot of bands in this genre, they don’t just copy them. Instead they try to create something of their own.
For those of you that will listen to the album and dig it, I strongly recommend you to also listen to Elysian magnetic fields, which is the precursor of Hyperion’s musical direction.
5/6
