Emerging earlier this year, Hauméa is a quartet from Alençon in France making a rather potent impression with their debut EP, Unborn. Offering four tracks bristling with a host of rock and metal nurtured flavours, the release makes for a captivating introduction to a band easy to see enticing strong attention with their temptation loaded sound.
Formed by bassist Léa Zima and guitarist Andy, the Hauméa was soon completed by the addition of vocalist Niko Lorelei drummer and Sébastien Chauvin. Their individual musical backgrounds and experiences has bred a sound which embraces an array of styles and flavours; a proposition as melodically seductive as it is imposingly aggressive and as imaginatively delivered as it is emotionally raw.
The Unborn EP opens up with its title track, the song quickly laying down its persuasive rhythmic and sonic bait. In full bloom, the track is a mix of the controlled and fevered, especially potent when its shackles are off. It is a strong start revealing the enterprise within the band’s sound and songwriting as well as individual craft. Equally the varied blend of metal and rock the band merges shows itself a magnetic proposal though really captivated the imagination across its following companions starting with Not Usual.
The second track instantly had attention gripped with its opening rally of beats, a tempting soon fully ablaze as guitars and bass unleashed their lustful exploits. Similarly there is a hungry edge to the vocals which just adds to the captivation. As its grows, the track fuses instinctive ferocity with a Nine Inch Nails-esque tempting, easily twisting from a rousing trespass to a melodic seduction and back as it easily eclipses its predecessor.
Dad is Fool makes its entrance on a deceptively calm beckoning but soon is unleashing a tide of creative trespass which in turn springs a contagious stroll of rhythmic and sonic enticement. Still a volatile edge remains though; a psychosis which ignites with predatory intent across the track’s bold and unpredictable landscape. As the previous track, it is an impressively stirring encounter marking out Hauméa as a highly potent and compelling proposition.
Instantly a sonic spiral around invasively swing rhythms marks the final track of Unborn, the mercurial Here I Am a cauldron of sound and intimation carrying threat and temptation. Both essences proceed to fuel each twist and turn within a track fluidly slipping from predation to seduction time and time again.
At its most striking in its middle but bookended by songs which also easily stirred the appetite, Unborn is a strongly convincing and exciting first meeting with Hauméa suggesting the potential of rather striking times ahead. Our anticipation is already rising.
The Unborn EP is available @ https://haumeaband136108.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/Haumea136108/
Pete RingMaster 18/12/2018
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
The Paris hailing quartet strike first with This Is War, an opener which makes a low key but ear coaxing entrance before its muscle and creative armoury rears up. As the guitar of Nicolas “BnV” Benedetti send out grooved spirals the rhythmic antagonism of drummer Cesar “ZarC” Boishus and bassist Fabien “BouFa” Grunzweig prowls. It is a threat which swiftly unveils the scope of the band’s flavoursome sound, a web of styles and infectious intrusions aligning to Adrian “Kal” Cavalier’s throat raw attack. Quickly a magnetic affair, the track only increases its hold on attention as tribal roars and melodic enterprise collude with primal instincts.
The first of three tantalising instrumentals starts the album off, Riffocephalus Minus a lure of crisp magnetic beats and meaty riffs swiftly bursting into a fiery proposition, though just as quickly that in turn slips into a harmonica led flirtation before evolving once again. It is a sign of things to come, of the unpredictable devilish antics on offer.
Be My Guest follows, a great dark grumble courting its croon before it roars with gusto and power, d’Arbigny’s fine vocals to the fore. His bass is a pulsating throb in its midst, the biting beats of Allard swinging with relish as Pavillon’s guitar weaves a melodic and sonic tapestry, the track as much a seduction as a trespass. With a rousing blues rock lining, the song is a tenacious pleasure quickly matched in enjoyment by the contagious shuffle of Red Coach. Its gentle emotive beginning does not give a clue to the energetic dance to follow, alternative and grunge tinged rock colouring its subsequent magnetic rock ‘n’ roll. Feet and hips were soon involved once it did hit its stride, the song one of many casting persistently nagging hooks.
The compelling start to the album is thickened by the menace lined flirtation of Stellar. Nogues vocally walks through atmospheric intimation; his tones and expression becoming more intense as guitars weave a captivating almost feral aurora of sound as again rhythms court the predacious climate with their manipulative swing. It is a truly magnetic soundscape for ears to embrace and the imagination to explore, the band’s own lyrical and physical suggestion equally sparking fresh ventures in thoughts even as the senses increasingly cower before the brewing celestial storm.
The excellent start only continues as The Project follows, its electronically hued entrance easily stirring keen attention before opening up into a rapacious almost carnivorous prowl. Metalcore meets groove metal as things intensify, many more strains of sound adding to the menace and imagination seizing trespass. Something akin to a fusion of Poison The Well, As I Lay Dying and Devildriver, the track gnaws and increasingly pleasures the senses, a success only escalating as the funkier throes of In My Jail tease and invade next. A beguiling web of styles and flavours, the track alone reveals the bold invention at the heart of Hampered and the expansive hunger in their sound which does not always get the chance to blossom as it might across the release. Here it is in full bloom, plaintive vocals and hungry sounds uniting in a ravenous assault of irritable yet severely infectious and predatory enterprise.
The Cajun opening of La roche et le rouleau is a deceitful prelude to rock ‘n roll time in the asylum; a wacked out stomp again involving an array of flavours in its contagion and even managing to keep feet and hips involved as it slips into a sultry noir lit jazz detour, coming out the other side with even more certifiable zeal. It is a madness which is even lustier within Paul, a track which has fifties in its breath, dark gothic theatre in its air, and blackened dementia in its heart. Many bands weave a tapestry of diversity but as this track alone echoes, few can rival Hardcore Anal Hydrogen in the organic fluidity it comes in or the bedlamic mastery.