By Aaron J. Klamer, Gnosis 'Zine
Well, this is probably my favorite demo that Ive received this year. Hyponic are a Chinese doomy death metal band who sound like theyre stuck in the early 90s but instead of being a hindrance, this propensity for harvesting the sound of that era gives them a unique edge in todays scene theres just not many bands playing in this style right now. Hyponic owe more than a little of their sound to Incantation, but they offer enough of their own elements to avoid the ripoff band tag. For starters, there are no blast beats in Hyponic, its mostly midpaced, with some extremely doomy parts. Besides, there is stuff here thats better than anything Incantation has done lately. The riffs are just great, very well-written and seething with that difficult to pin down evil vibe. Significantly contributing to said vibe are the high-pitched drone guitars that are draped like a funeral garb over some of the music. The first time they appear is in the 2nd track A False Legend, which starts slow before building to a more manic pace, at which time the guitars switch from the ambient drone to a creepy dissonant tremolo picked harmony part. The production is excellent, surprising since it was all done by the band. The guitars especially are nice and thick, and the vocals are as low pitched and breathy as Craig Pillard but not as guttural, like hes not trying as hard to sing out of his range. In other words, these are some killer fucking extreme death metal vocals, and the production captures them perfectly. The Last Divine presents another type of sound, a slowly picked, very minor-sounding melody, which slowly goes back and forth between two root notes, a very depressing sound indeed. This develops into some very anthemic riffing that sounds almost like Destroyer 666 on ludes before going back into more Incantation-esque speed picking. Third (which is actually the fourth track) sounds a lot like old Amorphis, which is not surprising since old Amorphis and Incantation share certain similarities (which can be traced back to Autopsy and Bolt Thrower). The extended closing, with its slow chord changes and melancholic solo, sounds a bit like old Paradise Lost. Fifth track Vile is one of the best on the demo, with its vitriolic combination of fast, mean riffs, bludgeoning vocals and compelling rhythms. The title track follows suit, later in the song featuring some simple harmonized riffs first the guitars are double-tracked, then a third guitar with a third harmony part is added, later moving even higher on the neck, nicely building tension to the end of the song. The hidden track (is it really hidden if the bio mentions it?) is very doomy, with the high dissonant guitar reappearing over a descending doom chord drone, which then drops out in favor of the vocals. After that are some very quiet keyboards that mostly just make noises, then a double tracked solo, slow at first then noisy. The solo is backed by organ keys and melodic bass fills, and ends with the high guitar again into feedback, swirling into the weird keyboard sounds and finally fading to black. Hyponic have actually been around since 96, so its not surprising that they sound much more developed than a lot of demo bands. I can find no faults with Hyponic, so unless you dislike the doomy death metal sound of the early 90s, do yourself a favor and pick this up. No price was given, but you can contact the band directly at hyponic@mail.com