Eschaton Hive - Eschaton Hive

Metal is designed to be as harsh as possible without severing the connection to the utmost anger in the lyrics that so define the genre anymore. Eschaton Hive is an Australian project that blends Metal and industrial to create a very thrashing and malevolent album. And, for their first album titled after the band itself, 'Eschaton Hive' does a swell job showing us what the proclaimed four survivors of the apocalypse can bring back from the future.

The band definitely pulls most, if not all, its influence from metal. "Pandemic" and "Eschatonation" are prime examples of this, delivering full on assaults of harsh screams and guitar riffs that explode our ears from time to time. Thrash metal also takes a stand on this album in the form of "I'm Ur Stalker". And, without a doubt, to me, that is the most harsh song on the album.

Speeding through high pitched notes and fast paced guitar work, combined with the vicious vocals that only the Hive can bring us, this track became an instant classic to me.

Now, as odd as it may be in an album as heavy as this, there were times when the album slowed down. Such as in the song "Warpz[o]ne", the fifth track of the album. However, it serves its purpose well; warpzones are supposed to be quick loops in time that you can travel through to reach a destination faster. And, well,the song does this. It's only a minute instrumental that practically serves as a transport from one harsh song to the next.

One song that threw me off, not because of the musical implementations, but because of the second set of vocals, was "Zombie Attack Plan". You have the usual screaming, combined with another voice that is nasty, but just doesn't really fit in well with everything else that Eschaton Hive has shown on us on this release.

So, with a few stragglers aside, this is a decent release. I would have preferred to see more differentiation in the album rather than the screaming and the guitars that trembled throughout the album. That's not to say that I did not enjoy the work on the album; it merely suggests that there should be more to it. I can actually say that I love this album, and while it's not excellent, I still find myself liking it a little too much; this release might serve to be a cult hit in my own book. May 25 2013