BAND OF THE WEEK: Hissing
Step into this week's dystopian offering of nightmarish sounds.
Come on, let’s be honest, you know what you’re getting yourself into by that band photo alone, right? It looks like the sort of faded photo the serial killer’s grandmother would have of him hanging out with his friends in the basement, when the police come looking for him way too late, after he’s left a trail of chopped up, mangled victims. There’s an even better/worse one that I’m sticking to this post too, just so you get a proper visual understanding of the depths of horror Hissing, who hail from Seattle, or Mordor, or the Upside Down, or wherever it is, will plunge you into with their new album, ‘Hypervirulence Architecture’, which is out TODAY! Go get it here, but don’t say you haven’t been warned.
So, if you’re somewhat verbal-inclined, like me, your first thought will surely be “wtf is a hyperviruthing architecture?”, allow me to refer you to the next issue of Zero Tolerance Magazine, where I was lucky enough to be able to interview bassist/vocalist Zach Wise and he explained the album’s concept in depth. Suffice to say, it involves some startling literature as inspiration, exploring in full the end result of anti-human tendencies and an extreme conclusion to the effects of technology in our wretched, doomed race.
That’s what it sounds like, too. Hissing have been picking at the very outer seams of extreme music for a while already, and the trio (complete with guitarist Joe O’Malley and drummer Sam Pickel) are one of those very wise entities who didn’t jump straight into a full album, preferring to hone their collective craft with a couple of EPs, plus two demos and a particularly nasty split with the frightening Sutekh Hexen. It was only four years after their inception, in 2018, that they put out their first proper album, and ‘Permanent Destitution’ was already a horrid journey into those far reaches of ugly, chaotic music. ‘Hypervirulence Architecture’ manages to go further, not that it’s a million miles away from the territory the band has conquered so far, but just like Portal, for instance, another creepy entity with whom Hissing share a few parallels, just some adjustments and refinements seem to completely alter the disposition of the sounds being fired off. But make no mistake, this is niche even for extreme music. Your friend who digs Arch Enemy won’t know what to do with this. Even if repeated listens will allow you to start to make sense of the chaos and the disorienting, maelstrom sort of nature of it all - and this record even offers a few slower, mega-heavy passages that are more perceptible and contribute enormously to the dynamics of the whole thing -, every other detail, like the bass clarinet solo that rips through ‘Cells Of Nonbeing’ or the surprising ambient industrial midpoint that is ‘Hypervirulence’ will always wipe out any sense of overfamiliarity. If Zach, Joe and Sam had a formal name for their musical occupation, it’d be spanner-throwers, while standing over the works.
Approach with caution, will you?
’Hypervirulence Architecture’ is out today via Profound Lore Records. Find Hissing on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.
