The Hÿss – Hÿss III: The Hÿssening EP
The Hÿss – Hÿss III: The Hÿssening EP
Self-Released
Release Date: 18/02/23
Running Time: 21:06
Review by Dark Juan
6/10
I have worked over 96 hours in the past five days and 120-plus over the week. My sense of reality is warped as fuck. I am not sure if I am even human anymore. Which way is up and which way is down? Is that large truck actually there or is it an audio-visual hallucination brought on by lack of sleep? Why is the amphetamine not working anymore? Could it be that fatigue has shagged my nervous system to the point where spaghetti would be of more use for transmitting signals from brain to leaden limb? I have consumed so much caffeine that sleep is now a distant and almost-forgotten memory. Joyful repose is a thing of the past, a bed a luxury only fleetingly glimpsed as I go past it to complete another task. My existence has become machine-like and I have suppressed my emotions and my desires in order to complete the work. The never-ending work. My colleagues (who are working just as hard as me) are breaking down in tears and recrimination around me as the stress builds and builds with no sign of respite yet I can’t. I have to be an inspiration to these people and keep them going and so I will lead by example, a man who externally displays no emotion apart from withering sarcasm, a wholly inappropriate sense of humour, professionalism and the will to carry on despite the physical and emotional cost to myself and to Mrs Dark Juan and I do this for about two thirds of what a nurse gets paid.
I am not a nurse. I am one of the forgotten – I care for vulnerable children and I work in kids’ homes. There are no people who notice the plight of the utterly dedicated workforce of which I am a part – no politician to support us to gain political mileage because we are a horrible secret to be swept under the carpet mainly because there are over 80,000 kids in care and a problem ignored is a problem you don’t have to deal with and a whole fucking underclass of poor, abused fuckers who haven’t been picked up by Social Services, because Social Services is an underfunded fucking mess and social workers are as overworked as us care staff are, with no union that directly represents us and because we rarely have any children die on us, no media spotlight unless there has been some shocking abuse perpetrated on a child. And before anyone tells me to go and get a better job – if I don’t do it, who the FUCK will? We are so short-staffed because there is no-one who WANTS to do it and therefore the pressure increases exponentially upon those of us who choose to do this work. Don’t you EVER moan to me about your shitty 37.5 hour a week office job with all the tawdry little affairs between you and Julie in accounts and shit. I would love to go home every night.
Apologies. I am a bit tired. Maybe some music might wake me up a bit. Let’s have a bit of a rummage in the review list and see what I come up with… Ah, splendid. Let’s have another one of Simon “You Have Never Fucking Heard Of Brevity, Have You?” Black’s wild card reviews. Hang on while I sling this 5-track EP from Chicago’s The Hÿss upon the Platter of Splatter ™…
The band open their account with ‘Are You Listening to the Hÿssening?’ which is a Stoner based song with a real shitty middle finger punk attitude in the gravelly, snot-nosed vocal. The guitar work has a strong Grunge element in it and it’s a pretty cool sounding thing, although I think The Hÿss suffer a bit from not really knowing where they are going next, musically. While the song is good and the vocals brilliant and the chorus killer, it all feels a bit unfocused.
Witness ‘Silvio’. It’s a great song and it really appears to reference Tool-style guitar dynamics and the arrangements of Deftones but with a Stoner and Classic Rock edge in the guitar sound, all Marlboro Reds hanging out of the gob of the guitarist as he peels riffs and licks out of a classic 1959 Les Paul through his valve-driven Marshalls. It’s this disconnect I am having trouble with. ‘Science Mountain’ does it to my poor abused brain again, being a speedy, straight-ahead rocker which grips you by the throat and doesn’t stop shaking you about, yet somehow incorporates a Grungy aesthetic in the guitar work.
I’m not understanding this at all.
‘Angle Of Repose’ does yet more genre-bending and twists Grunge, Nu-Metal and Stoner into tortured new shapes and even has a breakdown. I don’t know why, but it works somehow. Album closer ‘Gnome Ken Bone’ throws yet more musical curveballs and has really idiosyncratic guitar sounds more suited to classic Rock and Metal playing music that starts off really grungy and then breaks out the church organ, stamps on the Metal pedal and kicks your poor, abused correspondent in his poorly abused head.
Good points – fucking amazing bass sound. The bass makes you want to shake your ass like a room full of cloned Nicki Minaj-es all twerking simultaneously. If it doesn’t collapse first. The bass is thunderous. The guitar work is also fucking great. The band use unusual sound textures and combinations in their songwriting to lend the band’s sound an uncomfortable, febrile quality, not unlike the experience when you spill a drink on a large and muscular man who could break you in half simply with his erection and you have that second of time when you don’t know whether he is a reasonable man who will accept an apology and a replacement drink or an absolute fucking psychopath who is going to tear off your arms and beat you to death with the wet ends. The gruff, gritty, Punky vocal performance is also pretty good too. And at last we have a resonant bass drum that doesn’t sound like someone twatting a mic’ed up lettuce with the back end of a kitchen knife.
Bad points – I feel that The Hÿss are very much an acquired taste and that I just don’t get them. Like Volbeat. Their sound is too idiosyncratic for me but this could be because I am fucking exhausted right now but I am not sure about them…
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System awards The Hÿss 6/10 for a record that is sure to find an audience but that Dark Juan doesn’t want to be a part of, yet is perfectly competent and probably sounds fucking brilliant if you’re pissed or not exhausted.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Are You Listening to the Hÿssening?
02. Silvio
03. Science Mountain
04. Angle of Repose
05. Gnome Ken Bone
LINE-UP:
Bill Sullivan – Bass
Mike Scales – Drums
Pat Kennedy – Guitars, vocals
Dave Fitzgerald – Guitars, vocals
Matt McDonald – Vocals
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
