With a sound delivering a punch as rich and inescapable as that of the heart and lyrical confrontation it surrounds, the self-titled debut album from US post hardcore outfit Hostile Array s one striking and impressive introduction. That forceful, indeed imposing attack though comes in layers of enterprise and imagination which equally enticed and ignited an always searching appetite for fresh, exciting, and individual.
Emerging in the initial weeks of 2017, Maryland hailing Hostile Array have already hinted at the potential of the album and gave a rich taster of their sound through a couple of singles. Their music is tagged as post hardcore but has real depth and adventure to its character embracing an array of metal and punk spices alongside inspirations cited as including Underoath, Norma Jean, Silent Planet, and Architects. Consisting of Brendan Frey, Garrison Frey, Hector Fernandez, Fredy Menjivar, and Andrew Markle, the band also has a ferocious lyrical intent and touch, songs getting their claws into political and social issues, corruptions, and ill-doings.
The album opens up with the outstanding Herd Instinct, the track one of those first couple of singles luring keen attention. Sonic intrusion and rhythmic baiting opens its tempting, a great grumbling bass soon in tandem with fury fuelled throat rasping vocals. Quickly though there is imaginative hints licking at ears, blossoming with melodic enticement and wicked hooks as the roar continues to harass air and social mentality. It is a cauldron which continues to evolve, metal bred textures coursing hardcore irritability; invention escalated by the potent landscape of clean and raw vocal dexterity.
Bastardized follows with its own ferocious incursion, snarling and blistering the senses from its first breath before sharing a more nu-metal natured breath with a touch of bands like Spineshank to it. Snapping and jabbing at ears, the track springs toxic contagion and intense discontent within an atmospheric melody stranded weave; seducing whilst preying on the listener before Wiretap uncages its own ferocious animus with instinctive catchiness and melodic suggestion at its core. There is a whiff of Deftones meets Architects to its growing body but to be honest as all hints offered to tracks, the Hostile Array sound absorbs and turns all in its own individuality.
Next up Devoid brawls and hollers within atmospheric smog next, it’s calm but portentous climate an emotive glaze to an inner volatile frustration while Migrant Myth is a net of metallic wiring around a blaze of unbridled displeasure. Both tracks invigorate their already resourceful landscapes with tenaciously adventurous twists and turns spun from unpredictable and contrasting textures. The second of the two is immense, too short but a thrilling trespass of persuasive enterprise igniting the passions for the following sonic and melodic fire of Newspeak; a track quickly burying itself in ears with emotional intensity and melodies as descriptive as the words they colour.
New single Warmonger is next, looming up from a distance with the animosity and skilled dexterity its title suggests. The throaty grumble of the bass and the composed bone splitting swings of beats incite the sonic flames and vocal voracity which climbs their irritability; they in turn like accelerant sparking melodic shimmers into senses broiling, emotionally burning flames.
Viciousness and tempting contagion shape up Calloused, it as body inspiring infectious as it is vocally and lyrically scathing with a tapestry of flavours and invention to accentuate both aspects. The song flows straight into the waiting jaws and feuding tendrils of Bluebird, it an equally accomplished and magnetic patchwork of ire led emotions and flavours woven into one fluid and riveting trespass.
Final track Disillusioned is a pyre of punk and metal malcontent and emotional grievance within a skilled bedlam of imagination and ferocity. It is a powerful striking last attack in a charge of nothing but; a truly memorable departure demanding a swift return to the album to face, endure, and thrill at its creative challenge and vendetta on world ills. There have not been too many post hardcore bred releases which have truly fired us up in the past couple of years but Hostile Array have not only provided such a treat but one which deserves to be considered as the best of the lot.
The Hostile Array album is released June 1st, available @ https://hostilearray.bandcamp.com/album/hostile-array
https://www.facebook.com/HostileArray/ https://twitter.com/HostileArray/
Pete RingMaster 29/05/2018
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
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.
It’s almost bedlamic prowess is followed by the devilish exploits of God Bless The Beast, the track like a punk infested fusion of Mötley Crüe and Converge. It needed little time to tempt and persuade, scythes of guitar and swinging rhythmic trespasses instantly igniting the senses even before Boos and Cartar uncage their creative appetites. The track is swiftly matched in success and enterprise by the groove woven A.O.A.U. Straight away its Caribbean toned rhythms had the imagination hooked, those subsequent spice flushed grooves adding to its inescapable lure. As with other tracks, the song’s sound is maybe not particularly unique but as its imagination, every twist and turn of sound brings a freshness which demanded keen attention.
The following Too Far Gone is swiftly into its sonic trespass, guitars again a searing intrusion and rousing incitement alongside the lumbering but tenacious beats of Elliot Cole and the dark hearted drawl of Chris Benoist’s bassline. A track tackling excessive binge drinking; a ”paradox of hard liquor being both the cause and the remedy of the sickness” according to Ryan partly inspired by the tragic tales of Bon Scott and John Bonham, it prowls and infests ears with a predatory but addictive quality taking the listener through alcoholism into death. As dark and menacing as it is, there is a certain catchiness which infests before The Brawl unleashes a tide of magnetic grooves and rapacious rhythms in the acclaimed Desert Storm manner. Emulating the title, Ryan entangles ears with his familiar ursine tones, guitars teasing with melodic fingering within the sonic winds. Its blues lining only adds to the temptation on offer, the song more expected Desert Storm rock ‘n’ roll but again with a keen fresh breath to its holler.
From the moment the EP’s title track looms right up from its distant entrance attention was not only hooked but chained to what was to follow. Wiry tendrils of guitar wrap around ears immediately, senses slapping beats alongside and once the first track hits its voracious stride and the vocals of Targett unleash their incitement, the deal between lust and the devil’s music roaring from the speakers was done. Swiftly the singer impresses with a throat abrasing attack and venomous delivery but it is when she breaks into a glorious clean delivery that realisation at her talent is inescapable. Before then guitarists Callan Hughes and Jay Bacon gnaw at and chew on the senses, twisting and turning with grooves as their hooks pierce with imagination as the swinging rhythms of drummer Willem Mason-Geraghty infest body and spirit just as potently. The track is immense and no better way to succumb to the first abusive seduction of VNDTA.
The following Tear It All Apart offers its own striking invitation, again a guitar making the creative beckoning before the band unites in an infectious rumble as imposing as it is magnetic. With wiry grooves and a compelling conspiracy of hooks and twists, the song soon has ears firmly locked in feeding on its cosmopolitan melodies and aggressive dynamics. As suggested earlier, there is something familiar about this and other songs yet it has a character and style to its roar which sets the band apart from most.
The EP opens up with Brain Bleach and instantly prowls the listener with predacious riffs and rhythms. Guitarists Sven Caes and Glenn Labie wind their bait and emerging grooves around ears as drummer Frederik Vanwijmelbeke pounds with controlled but voracious intent. In the midst of the sizing up vocalist Thomas Marijsse brings a raw agitation which in turn is courted by the heavy grumble of Frederik Declercq’s bass. The song continues to stalk and tenderise the senses, going up a gear or two but never going for the jugular. Instead it springs a virulent groove which had the body bouncing as a swift appetite for the band’s sound erupted. That cycle repeats with greater tenacity and intensity, the track making for a tremendous start with a vocal self-diagnosis adding to its instinctive contagion.