I take a lot of the Australian black metal acts very seriously. It is almost as though they are trying not to be discovered and remain hidden from the public eye, making the music for themselves rather than anyone else. The fact that they become renowned and even revered along the way is beside the point. The likes of Nazxul, Austere, Pestilential Shadows, Ruins and over in Tasmania, Striborg all make albums and are often signed to labels and hit the music press but still dwell in darkness and give the impression that this is where they want to stay. Hybrid Nightmares strike as the other end of the spectrum. They are a band releasing their second EP off their own back and are virtually crying for attention and want to be recognised. They are doing a lot of the right things. Considering this is self released it looks and sounds professional. The album artwork is striking and it is obvious that a fair bit of care and attention has gone into presenting themselves. Rather than being shrouded in anonymity they even have a before and after photo of them with and without corpse paint, which is all too amusing, certainly not what one would expect from a band who take themselves as particularly seriously.
So onto the music. Well there are some good ideas on these five songs which last over the half hour mark. This is highly melodic black metal and quite safe sounding and even commercial to a large sense as far as the genre goes. It is the sort of stuff that no doubt goes down well with a local crowd and I would not be surprised if the group find themselves with quite a few opening slots when the bigger acts come to town. The main problems for me is that they try too hard and are putting too many things into their songs. The occasional riff and melodic break, goes down well but their numbers often sound too cluttered and outstay their welcome. The vocals don’t really do it for me either and consist of a rather one dimensional rasp and occasional spat out grunt. The familiar sounding guitar signature starting ‘Upon The Cursed Wings’ sounds all too derivative but it is one of the few parts of the disc that does linger after it has finished and the song builds upon it and features some tight playing from the drums and some pretty impressive twin guitar harmonies. I like the way that ‘Ashes Of An Astral Winter’ starts in an atmospheric fashion but despite it and the grandiosity of the title it quickly devolves into a standard played by numbers BM affair without much in the way of heart and soul. The cod spoken part section sounds cheesy as hell too.
This lot are obviously fairly young though and not at all bad at what they do. They are no worse than the more pantomime acts from the UK when they started out (stand up Hecate Enthroned and Evil Scarecrow for example) and unlike them will hopefully evolve and get better when they co-ordinate their ideas. At the moment they are too polished to get any underground notoriety and not good enough for the bigger labels looking to sign the more accessible acts of their ilk.
(5.5/10 Pete Woods)
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