LP Review: Hexagram-Rhymes for the Hated

The connotations of the words “local metal band” scare me as much as you. The rigid, angular riffs, drum patterns with no agenda, vocals that sound like a rhino dying and clichéd, unplanned lyrics (in one case I once found one band to write their words two minutes before their set). The truth about local bands is there is a reason why they are local, and that reason is because no one else needs to hear about them. Now take a local band that has grown higher than any local scene, a band that has played side by side with heavyweights and taken home awards. This band is Hexagram and their debut album is anything but “local”.

The bands’ first solid output is one that is both professional and personal. Aaron Miller, who has headed the band through various line-up changes, pushes Rhymes for the Hated towards greatness, often passing through moments of deep though and self-evaluation. Sonically, the deep feedback rush which opens the LP in Absence of Trust prepares the listener for an intense mental work out, and the song is equalled in strength by the tracks that follow.

In fact, the only thing that stops Hexagram from dominating the world with this album is the labelling of the group specifically in the metal genre. This is aggression music at its best. The crooked riffs of Crowbar can be heard within Driven by Fear, a song which utilizes a foreboding bass-line and deep vocal hooks to create a realistic external embodiment of emotion and strength through weakness. The machine gun drumming that opens Run like Hell is as devastating as the screaming guitar fillers of Two Broken Legs whereas Empire harnesses gothic tinged echoes to penetrate any musical barrier between here and another dimension.

However, it is within the albums’ finale which predicts Hexagrams’ rise as a force to be reckoned with. With Insane Visions, Resistance and Rhyme for the Hated, Miller and O’Hara prove that something wicked this way comes. Insane Visons leads us to a state of emergency with its vicious riff cycle which is instantly replicated with the order to “resist!” in the following track. The urgency that is projected within Miller’s vocals builds tempo of the album as a collective whole, until the insanity of the piece folds and implodes in Rhyme for the Hated, a song that so confused by its identity it slowly becomes corrupted and becomes a different demon altogether. The cycle of anger is only completed by a reverse feedback sound of opposing strengths to that which was heard at the beginning and when the acidity of the music is relinquished to reveal The Burning Tree, which replaces a false ending with clarity and optimism.

A truly recommended album for those who wish to witness raw emotion and anger through a medium which has often spawned artists who have failed to do so.