EP Review: The Hirsch Effekt - Solitaer
Reviewed by Patrick O'Reilly
The global COVID pandemic will be remembered for a lot of things, mostly negative. One of the positives to come from it however has been the creative ways in which bands and artists have come up with new music and how the pandemic influenced song writing.
German math rockers The Hirsch Effekt utilised the isolation of lockdown to create an innovate concept EP called Solitaer. The whole ethos behind this EP is that each song was written by one individual band member in isolation and only once it was written was it shared with the other band members. This makes for a unique and unusual set of songs that do sound very different from one another but as a whole I think the EP works on an artistic level both in terms of the music itself and also the concept of isolation.
Opener Palingenesis is the first single from the EP and starts the recording in upbeat energetic fashion. It has hooks aplenty and is a catchy fast paced start.
Second track Nares is a much more brooding, heavy track and lurches through angry slower sections before finishing with a soaring, heartfelt vocal. Track 3, Amorphus is the most technical song on the EP and combines odd time sections with staccato riffing and drumming to create a monster of a progressive metal track. It closes with Gregaer a much more mainstream sounding rock song with some minor progressive touches, it almost sounds poppy in places but still has the atmosphere and feeling of the other tracks.
The band are technical without being unlistenable and pack a huge amount of emotion into their songs. This ability combined with the interesting concept of the EP make for a strong record and one that is worth checking out for those who like progressive metal in any form.
I would recommend this album in particular for fans of – Dillinger Escape Plan, Cursive, Fugazi, Sunny Day Real Estate
