Album Review: Hypno5e – Trame Noire

Album Review: Hypno5e – Trame Noire

Reviewed by Oli Gonzalez

“Be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” – Bruce Lee

What on earth does a quote from the most famous martial artist of all time have to do with French post metal band Hypno5e? A band on the eve of their next album “Trame Noire”?

Well I’m glad you asked.

See, Hypno5e has never been one to play by the rule book. In fact, they’ve strayed so far away from the rule book, they’ve forgotten what it even looks like! After all, frontman Emmanuel commented that ‘’I never want Hypno5e to become predictable”. They’ve always been a band with an expansive and difficult to categorise style, with a fluid approach to genres like, you guessed it, like water!

We can see evidence of this genre-fluid approach on “Trame Noire”. In particular with the intricate piano driven segment that opens up ‘Lost Fires’ in a haunting yet aesthetically pleasing passage. It’s not before the walls of distortion from the guitars and bass shift the focus of the song from soothing and melodic to crushing and cathartic. Though throughout all of this, frontman Emmanuel’s voice is calm and composed in a falsetto style clean vocal, juxtaposing against the chaos. Speaking of chaos, when the music becomes straight up abrasive and neck-snappingly heavy, he unleashes his blistering growls to match the aggression of the underlying music! ‘Falmer’ follows in a similar pattern of exchanging ambient and melody driven segments with heavier movements that are overflowing with venom!

Though ‘Molecular Angel’ is the peak of this monstrous heaviness. When it hits, you’ll feel the same kind of disruptive dissonant mass you’d expect from the titans of post metal like Amenra or Russian Circles! Genuinely, listen to the outro on release day and see how the heavy distorted chugs could cause riots in the live arena.

‘Bare Bones’ feels like an odd name for a song with a ridiculous complex time signature and mechanically tight rhythm section to drive the song forward. Hypno5e are all about those huge cinematic peaks, and they unleash one of the major crescendos on the album towards the end of this near 7 minute blast. All before the album’s title track brings us back down to earth in its more minimalistic structure, but no less ferocious in its delivery.

So, when comparing “Trame Noire” with more recent efforts “Sheol” and “A Distant (Dark) Source”, Hypno5e are one of the most difficult bands to predict. Just like Emmanuel had predicted and set out to achieve. Having recently joined The Ocean, he can be very proud at having two top draw post metal albums to his name this autumn. “Trame Noire” may be a difficult one to digest for those wanting a quick dopamine hit, but for the seasoned progressive music fan who doesn’t shy away from near ten minute monoliths, you’ll be more than satiated with the rewarding musical journey each composition the album will take you on.

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