Merchants Of Air
  • Home
  • Reviews
    • Albums
    • Concerts
  • Premieres
  • Interviews
  • Giveaways
  • Playlists
  • Shop
    • Merchants Of Air releases
  • About us
    • About Us
    • Writers Wanted
    • Logos and banner
    • Advertise
    • Mailinglist

Hyponic - 前行者

23/8/2016

Comments

 
doom / black metal / dark ambient
Weird Truth Productions
bandcamp
facebook
Picture
Picture
support Merchants Of Air, check out our exclusive shirt designs
Sometimes, I load a whole bunch of albums to review into my Winamp-media player, check the 'shuffle' button and hit play. Then I start doing some other stuff, writing stories for example, or cleaning the bathroom. Yesterday, after I published all the new articles, I did exactly that. The playlist started with a two-minutes lasting grindcore tune and by the time I was in the kitchen, a song from this freaky and haunting gem suddenly started playing. I rushed back into the living room, watched who created these delightful hellish sounds and unchecked the shuffle-button. This I had to hear out entirely.

Hyponic was formed in Hong Kong, back in 1996. A first album, 'Black Sun' appeared in 2001, followed by 'The Noise Of Time' in 2005. Perhaps the band is most notable for their slowed down version of Death's 'The Philosopher' which they recorded for a tribute compilation. Now, over a decade after the previous full-length, the mysterious act returns with '前行者' (which Google translates as 'Former Monk'). And my god, what a brilliant monster this has become?

The album pretty much sounds like a slowed down and stretched out black metal album, which obviously drags us into the doomish regions of the metal universe. Yet, it also sounds like a drone doom version of Pink Floyd with its elaborate and dreamy (or nightmarish) guitar solos.The whole thing is slow, like a thick black slime crawling through my speakers, covering everything in a crushing blanket of drones, dark ambient soundscapes and martial ambient passages. That being said, if Puissance and Sunn O))) would make an album together, it would pretty much sound like this one.

This is as post-apocalyptic as it can possibly get. Especially the track '飄流', which sounds like echoing waves of despair over a barren wasteland, hours after humanity fought its very last war and lost it. By the end, there's an eerie cover of Virus' 'Intro'. I don't know the original track, hell, I don't even know which Virus they're covering but this cover is one brilliant piece of audibly darkness. This whole album is a perfect blend of dark ambient, drone and depressive black metal, here and there joined by a deep, growling voice. 

Or in other words: "wow"


​Serge




Comments
    subscribe to our newsletter

    Genres

    All
    Acoustic
    Alternative
    Ambient
    Avant Garde
    Avant-garde
    Black Metal
    Blues
    Children
    Classical
    Country
    Crust
    Dark Ambient
    Dark Jazz
    Darkwave
    Death Metal
    Doom
    Dream Pop
    Drone
    Drum & Bass
    Dub
    Dubstep
    EBM
    Electro
    Electronic
    Ethereal
    Experimental
    Folk
    Folk Metal
    Funk
    Gothic
    Grindcore
    Grunge
    Hardcore
    Hard Rock
    Heavy Metal
    Hip Hop
    Hip-hop
    Idm
    Indie
    Industrial
    Instrumental
    Jazz
    Krautrock
    Martial
    Math Rock
    Metal
    Metalcore
    Neo Classical
    Neo-classical
    Neo Folk
    Neo-folk
    Noise
    Noise Rock
    Noise-rock
    Nu Metal
    Nu-metal
    Opera
    Pop
    Post Metal
    Post Punk
    Post Rock
    Progressive
    Psychedelic
    Psytrance
    Punk
    Reggae
    Rock
    Score
    Shoegaze
    Singer/songwriter
    Sludge
    Soul
    Southern Rock
    Speed Metal
    Stoner
    Symphonic Metal
    Synthpop
    Techno
    Thrash
    Triphop
    Trip-hop
    World

    Archives

    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

Find us on

facebook
google+
twitter
tumblr
​
minds

About Us

Contact
FAQ
Logos and banners
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.