HYPERCUT

After unleashing their debut onto the world of avant-garde metal, the rare case of a metal band from the tiny principality of Monaco based HARDCORE ANAL HYDROGEN took their sweet time before releasing its sophomore followup. After shortening the rather obnoxious name to simply HAH, this wacky musical entity that clearly graduated from the University of Mr Bungle released HYPERCUT four years later in 2018. This is one of those bands that loves to indulge in extremes and engage in bipolar mood swings similar to not only the Bunglers but bands like Pryapisme, Estradasphere, Unexpect and quite a number of other similarly minded bands that love to let the extreme metal commingle with crazy disparate non-metal genres. While these types of bands seem to be a dime a dozen these days, very few can actually pull it off and release fascinating and ear-appealing albums.

HAH hit the ground running with its debut "The Talas Of Satan" and provided an even more exciting followup with HYPERCUT. This avant-garde smorgasbord of sounds starts things off with "Jean-Pierre" and makes it perfectly clear that this is an outrageously vicious metal act that just happens to dabble in electronica, ethnic sounds, loungy jazz, ambient and acoustic sounds as it unfolds it all in a punk fueled nonchalance all the while remaining anchored in extreme metal sounds ranging from thrash metal to death metal, grindcore and occasional classical heavy metal.

HYPERCUT continues the melodic compositions that milk every cadence for all its worth with some featuring bombastic metal riffing passages (such as the opening "Jean-Pierre") while other tracks like "Phillip" taking a heady romp through the world of soundtrack classical score territory with little metal to be heard at all. This sophomore offering also increases the complexity with more uncommon signatures as well as moments of avant-garde angularity. Influences include Steve Reich, The Beatles, Meshuggah, Aphex Twin, Jean Michel Jarre, Pierre Henry, Little Richard, John Coltrane, George A. Romero and Napalm Death as claimed on HAH's Bandcamp site. A couple tracks like "Bontemmieu" offer a bit of Django Reinhardt gypsy swing guitar gusto. The closing "Alain, l'homie télévitré" is one of the craziest most extreme with both metal fury, wickedly weird time signatures and all the creepy atmosphere you could possibly hope for.

Generally speaking the tracks are short and to the point offering a mix of extremely caustic metal guitar, bass and drum heft which are woven into digital hardcore electronica. Many tracks are around the two or three minute mark and those are the most obnoxiously loud and metallic of the lot. The only long track is the symphonic soundtracky "Phillip" which almost hits the nine minute mark. The musicianship is excellent as is the production. These guys have mastered all the genres included before attempting to throw them on the playground together. The editing, mixing and mastering is as artful as the most talented DJ and the metal aspects are also clearly professional in every manner.

Despite the desire to throw in many musical elements, HAH isn't as extreme as say Mr Bungle where every cadence jumps into a different musical genre or unrelated flow. The tracks focus on a single style and are simply augmented with tones, timbres and crazy percussive beats. There's some chiptune sounds, synthesized weirdness and the vocals are more in the grindcore camp with digital manipulation. Sometimes it's a bit difficult to tell what's a guitar and what's a keyboard frenzy but overall it all blends together fairly well. Basically if you ask me, i would describe the metal like the latest Mr Bungle album "The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny" only more schizoid and littered with excursions into something completely new. For my tastes i love this kind of stuff and HYPERCUT makes the cut for sure!