Hexacron "s/t" CD
[self-released]
This is an odd one.  Right off the bat I'll say that the first song, "Return", shouldn't be on here.  It opens with a pretty dark sort of vibe, but too much of the playing comes across as typical metalcore to me, of the variety that's far more towards death/grind than anything, and it honestly had me expecting this demo to be kind of shitty.  There's just a lot of mildly chaotic shifting between tremolo picking and churning flurries of notes, pull-off runs, thicker chords with staggered rhythmic patterns, etc.  The snarling vocal screams also do little for me in this context, though I honestly think that's more a result of the music not particularly hitting me.  But things get much better from that point on.  "Lazy Sky" is a little thicker and more spacious, letting the discordance have a larger hand in things, even tossing in a few hints at subtly rocked out chord progressions, and this definitely helps move things along to a degree.  "Demigod" then has some slick riffs that are a little more involved and have melodic tinges that really work well, and the lighter dynamics offered by the clean passages are a welcome breather too.  This is by far my favorite track herein, as the riffs have more feeling and energy, and the technical flare feels more genuine, all of which gives the vocals a more ferocious edge that in turn makes the performance more fitting and interesting to boot.  "Saturnine" goes so far as to open with clean guitars and explore melody more fully, also making for one of the darker and more forceful compositions.  The recording sounds like a demo but is tolerable.  It's muddy and there's a weird clank to the bass tone that can add some extra noise to the mix, but the drums are ultra thick and the guitar tone is alright.  Everything needs a little more space and brightness, it's definitely on the rugged side, but I can listen to it without being overly agitated.  I'm sure they were able to pull this off with a modest budget, and with a little more work I think these songs might've sounded even more intense.  The CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with a color booklet that looks like it was printed using means that are a few steps below a professional print job, but not a home printer or anything.  The artwork looks pretty nice, with the black and white inner spread keepings things a little more simplistic.  The lyrics are somewhat abstract and could lead to numerous different interpretations: "The old systems smell of rot, their masters running in circles, Bloated hearts ready to pop, All alone in your golden grave your trinkets are cold, silent, unresponsive to your pain, Try and die..."  The last two songs on this thing are great, with "Lazy Sky" following slightly behind.  "Return" is just a shitty tune though, so as long as the band stays away from that jumbled and overbearing crap I'll be damn curious to see where they head from here on out.  Things are still a little rough around the edges, but clear up some of the production values and slap down a couple more songs like "Demigod" and "Saturnine" and you'd have yourself a potentially raging full-length.  Initially I was very much misled by that opening cut, but overall I'll be watching these guys. (6/10)
Running time - 21:53, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: Demigod, Saturnine]
Hexacron - http://www.audiostreet.net/hexacron

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