Album Review: Hexenhaus - Reissues
Reviewed by Eric Clifford
I thought these albums would be good going in for a few reasons – after all, an album wouldn’t generally see a re-release unless someone thought it was worth remembering. And besides, I love doing this almost beyond anything else – the ferreting out of ever more obscure gems, endless sleuthing through the more untravelled paths of the internet, back issues of the much-missed Terrorizer or Decibel magazines, trawling through second-hand CD selections in long cardboard boxes at festivals, to find those diamonds that fell through the cracks, that never saw the acclaim they deserved. Maybe Hexenhaus are a bigger deal in their homeland – not being Swedish myself I couldn’t tell you. I’d certainly never heard of them, but either way, I came into this buoyant. Hopeful. That these were good albums didn’t in and of itself shock me.
But I didn’t think they’d be this good.
A Tribute to Insanity
Of all these remasters, A Tribute to Insanity is by far the most conventional in its approach. Euro-thrash in excelsis, from the echoing imp howl of the vocals, to the twanging guitar tone, to that gorgeously natural kit sound. If you’ve spent any time at all with the early works of the German masters you’ll recognise the building materials here from light years away, but as ever it’s the resulting construction that matters. Right from this initial offering, Hexenhaus prove them to be a cut above your common or garden variety thrash outfit. Their compositions are convoluted yet cohesive, tight bundles of complex interlocking parts that for the most part never take that unfortunate step into illogical strings of unrelated sections, overstuffed for the sake being overstuffed. The songs retain their identities irrespective of how complicated they become throughout - take tracklist highlight “Incubus” for one example; riff after delirious riff, from a chugging cellar-dweller of a passage at 0.41, or the quintessence of Slayer at 2.09. these riffs cycle but seldom enough for familiarity to build contempt, nailing that intersection between catchiness and complexity.
Iconic lead guitarists in thrash metal are not in short supply; Hammett and Mustaine routinely feature in top guitarist lists within any genre, and you’re tripping over Skolnicks and Friedmans and Holts the second you dip more than a toenail into the waters beyond that. But I’ve never heard anyone mention Mike Wead. This is, I think, an injustice crying out for redress. Just listening to what the guy can do with six strings and pick, it makes total sense why he’s been playing for King Diamond for a fair while now. He shreds like an RSPCA militia are knocking at the door and he’s got a 7 foot stack of photos of himself balls deep in a chicken to get through. The man’s fingers dance around the fretboard like it’s electrified. Just listen to him ignite on “Death Walks Among Us”. While he reaches a breathtaking peak in the last of these three remasters (Awakening), he’s on fucking fire even at this early stage. It’s not as though he’s purely a technician either – far from it, some of the riffs he throws out casually are absolutely exemplary, swaggering brutes of 1980’s ill-will, thrown aloft with the spite-born animosity of a nailbomb.
It’s not all roses however; “As Darkness Falls” reveals the band’s ambitions, a lengthy 10 minute excursion that unfortunately also demonstrates the band’s reach exceeding their grasp. It starts awkwardly, with a bizarre warbling effect that sounds like someone playing “Scatman” through a harmonica, and while the song most definitely improves from there it also can’t quite avoid tripping over itself. It hits a mid-paced trudge fairly quickly – around the 2.16 point - and seems content to stick in that particularly muddy rut for longer than seems wise. It has some excellent Solo work, after which the song does pick up the pace a little, but shortly afterwards we’re back to the same strolling tempo that we were previously. It felt like it just went on and on, unobjectionable in terms of it’s component parts but strung out far longer than was necessary. There is, to be clear an excellent song within this, but its breathing comes ragged under so many layers of insulating flab, desperately in need of some musical liposuction.
There’s no shortage of classic thrash debuts; while the likes of Exodus or Testament are inarguably more influential, the relative obscurity of Hexenhaus should under no circumstances be taken as an indicator of overall quality. This is mightily impressive if not flawless work, and with a little more tightness to the writing Hexenhaus clearly had it in them to release something mindblowing. And did they ever do that in 1990.
The Edge of Eternity
The Edge of Eternity is the album where Hexenhaus go from “really, really good” to “monumental”. It's so good I found myself somewhat ashamed that I’d not heard of it before, and about as surprised that I don’t hear it mentioned in reverent tones whenever anyone is casting their two cents on classic thrash. The technical and progressive inclinations of the band were in ready evidence on their first album, but Christ alive if this isn’t a far superior symbiosis of them with a base of glorious thrash war machinery at it’s heart. As “Toxic Threat” revs up and opens fire, it flips between time signatures and tempos in a heartbeat, sandblasting the meat free from your skull in flailing tendrils with staccato verse and chorus riffs, the snare somersaulting between syncopated grooves and the propulsive snap of a state-of-the-art classic thrash snare-kick pattern. It’s magnificent, but then, so much here is – swing the pick wherever you like, you’re only striking gold.
The playing is tighter than a whale’s arse. Are whale arses especially tight? I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter because they won’t ever be as tight as this album. These songs are the absolute apotheosis of early 90’s thrash, from the superlative anthem of “House of Lies” and it’s mechanically precise burst-fire spitting 50. Cal rounds through your vital organs to “The Eternal Nightmare” which summons some benighted haunter of Dante’s 9th circle, a grim hybrid of Megadeth technicality on the verse and Anthrax bounce on the chorus. Where I felt that one of the relatively few detractions for “A Tribute to Insanity” was that it’s longest, most expansive track meandered a bit and became tiresome taken in one go, there’s no equivalent complaints here – “At the Edge of Eternity” is 13 minutes long and every one of them is awesome, this complex shifting composition by turns an unstoppable stride of palm mutes and snare hits like ordinance fire, by turns an almost hallucinogenic shredfest display of guitarist Mike Wead’s unparalleled talent, and by other turns a nightmare of building code violating thrash mastery. It’s a superlative morphing lament configuration of a track, bolstered only further by the additional boon of the production taking a step up from the appreciable primitivism of the debut, coming with a far higher explosive payload as a result. The bassy chugs resound on “Prime Evil”, perfectly legible in all facets yet still with that blessed harsh edge to give Hexenhaus’ efforts as many teeth as possible.
I have nothing bad to say about this album. I’ve tried, but whatever nitpicks I land on are so slim as to make me feel slightly churlish in even raising them. It would be like shit-talking Michaelangelo because he discoloured a cherub’s pube in the Sistine Chapel. If I’m compelled to pedantry of an awe-inspiring extent I guess it could be argued that the introductory track is superfluous, but that would be like complaining that a diabetes cure capable of infinite green energy generation, resurrection, and dinosaur cloning smelt a bit funny. The downsides pale into insignificance to such a degree that mentioning them at all feels like a waste of time. This album is a masterpiece, an act of scintillating brilliance that stands alongside the best the genre has to offer.
Awakening
There’s a transition afoot here; the band started as a thrash band with progressive traits, transformed seamlessly into a paragon fusion of progressive and thrash metal, and then here we see the band leaning more into a progressive-forward affair. If you’re a Symphony X fan this could well be your pick of the bunch so far as these three remasters are concerned. I’d disagree with you, but half-heartedly, and the reason for that is that Awakening, much like it’s older brother The Edge of Eternity, is fucking stupendous.
Another slightly pointless intro aside, “Awakening” commences by thrashing your spine into dust with the liquefying left-right combo of “Awakening” and “Betrayed (by Justice)”, two of the most sociopathic cuts of the bunch. There’s an immediate and obvious improvement of a sort on the vocal front – Thomas Lyon was using more of a sardonic canine bark on The Edge of Eternity but “Awakening” sees him channel his inner Candlemass fan with a wailing howl of a performance like the armageddon prognostications of a doomsday cult’s chief adept, chanting black prophecies of destruction from a monastery atop a mountain range. The production is at its fulsome best here, viscous and rich, bodacious and voluptuous. The result is that heavier songs like “Paradise of Pain” get to flex their swollen musculature with intemperate, angry grooves, veins popping through the skin like pulsing roots.
The band make more use of synths, and are content to experiment with slower tempos, which is more evident towards the back end of the album, notably when “The Eternal Nightmare – Act 2” shows up with an opening riff yanked from Cathedral’s discography. It turns into a baleful psalm of alternate picking and discomforting chanting, more of Thomas Lyons doing his mountain bound prophet of the end-times routine. That this song is heavier than brontosaurus shit is true, and that the song is fiercely catchy also a matter of verifiable fact, but the final 2 minutes or so also proves Hexenhaus formidable capabilities with melody, as the track sweeps to grand closure with elegant vocal and guitar melodies that counterplay and compliment each other perfectly.
So why do I prefer The Edge of Eternity? It’s not for slackness on the part of Awakening. Nor really does it come down to anything that Awakening itself does poorly, so much as I just have a preference for the songs on The Edge of Eternity. They were I think overall a bit faster, and while Thomas’ vocals on Awakening are probably better from a technical perspective, I was more on board with his harsher delivery on the prior album. “Code 29” is a fun but ultimately needless bit of purely instrumental filler, even if it does demonstrate the impeccable guitar work of Mike Wead front and centre. With all that said, I hinted initially at the type of metalhead that I think would be more drawn to this album as opposed to Hexenhaus’ previous work. Personally, I’m more of an extreme metal type. I like some progressive metal bands, and obviously respect their talents immensely, but at the end of the day if you offer me a Nevermore album or a Demolition Hammer album, 9 times out of ten I’m going for the Demolition Hammer release. But if you’re on the flipside of that coin, then I can see you loving Awakening even more so than do I.
The final word is that I cannot recommend checking out this band enough. Varying from the excellent to some of the best thrash I’ve ever heard, if you, like me, were until now ignorant of Hexenhaus’ existence then I beseech you to rectify that mistake. The gods of metal, frowning as they do down from their steel thrones, are both merciful and beneficent, and shall doubtless be forgiving of your transgressions. I don’t know who it was that made the final call on re-releasing these albums, but whoever it was, praise be to you and your exquisite taste. View this review then as a solemn injunction and earnest plea all in one: buy this shit immediately. Sell blood if you have to, or heirlooms for the haemophiliacs amongst our little corner of the musical space. I don’t care. Just do whatever you can to get these albums into your auditory canals as soon as humanly possible.
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