Hyems - Antinomie
Restrain Records – R7012-2 – 19 October 2007
by John Norby
Hyems belt out a decent mix of black and death metal that draws extensively from both genres – particularly the blackened end of the spectrum – and just manages to keep its head above water in keeping listener interest throughout its 45-minute blitzkrieg.
Where
Hyems falter is in Andreas ‘Frostfuck’ Jäger’s black metal-style vocals. He does have a decent range, and pulls off death metal growls and black metal shrieks to good effect. But, therein lies the problem – there’s a very one-dimensional output on both, resulting in a distinct lack of character that leaves us
only with growls and shrieks. Prime examples are on
’Syphilisation’ and
’Untastbar’, where the black vocals simply sound off as variations on
”ya-ya-yaya-yaya-ya-ya-eee”. This undermines the commendable efforts by the rest of the band, who have put together a decent enough album. It’s not that Jäger is a bad vocalist – far from it! He just needs to step outside his comfort zone and hit us with the potential that he quite obviously has.
There are some genuinely great moments on
Antinomie, but rather disappointingly, those moments aren’t entire songs, they’re
parts of songs: the slow end section of
’Tum Hiems (Carmen Extulit Horridulum)’, which owes more to doom than any other genre; the opening riff on
’Untastbar’ that doesn’t last quite long enough to fully please; the final blast of
’Serum 144’.
Hyems are so close to being an amazing band. Let’s hope with their next release they take a chance and leave us with jaws on the floor.
Official Hyems Website
Official Hyems Myspace
Official Restrain Records Website
