ALBUM REVIEW: None But A Pure Heart Can Sing – So Hideous
New York’s SO HIDEOUS are back after a short hiatus that saw the band members go their separate ways to focus on families and careers. But frontman Brendan Cruz never really stopped writing, and the results seen here on None But A Pure Heart Can Sing are evidence of biding time to dazzling effect. Their first release since 2015’s Laurestine, fans will quickly notice a change in sound; the post-black metal emphasis remains front and centre, but after recruiting the rhythm section of THE NUMBER TWELVE LOOKS LIKE YOU (that’s bassist DJ Scully and drummer Michael Kadnar, for the uninitiated), the band has taken on some wider-reaching influences such as jazz and Afrobeat.
What that does to their sound, and to the record, is lift it exponentially and make this SO HIDEOUS‘ most ambitious, textured and accomplished work to date. The jazz piano during album opener Souvenir (Echo) leading into an almost middle-eastern guitar refrain is utterly bewitching; the fact that it transitioned to a world-music-inspired number from a frantic, frenetic post-metal number laced with anguished screams is a lovely little bonus.
The Emerald Pearl follows with an opening that is dripping with Americana, reminiscent of a weathered cowboy riding back into a goldrush town. It’s an opening that feels dangerous and haunting, but soon gives way to the relative gunfight that would surely follow were this a Western. Orchestral strings and horns play out the madness, and the maximum attack is enthralling, complete with the acerbic vocal delivery and the machine-driven drumming. The crescendo is goosebump-inducing and you just feel like – whatever you’re doing when listening – you want to do it faster and harder. The urgency and immediacy of None But A Pure Heart Can Sing is astoundingly palpable, especially here.
It’s worth taking a moment to highlight the drumming by Michael Kadnar (who also plies his trade for DOWNFALL OF GAIA). On a record that places such emphasis on grand, orchestral arrangements and dark, brooding themes, the drumming throughout is simply extraordinary. Twisting and turning, but always carrying proceedings, it’s a gargantuan shift delivered with huge aplomb and a top-tier addition to the band.
Motorik Visage manages to feel far shorter than its 11:13 runtime, thanks in part to its constant forward motion and a progression through ideas that is so expertly navigated that each advance feels wholly natural, but different enough so as to not meld together. Album closer From Now (Til The Time We’re Still) is an uncharacteristically euphoric piece and a stunning end to the record, completing the journey through these five songs and 30 minutes which take us from despair and danger to some sparkling hope, all via sheer excellence.
An absolute triumph of a record, the only shame is that it’s come out so late in the year. A couple of months earlier, and this would be a real fixture on year-end lists. It’s been six years since their last record – here’s hoping we don’t have to wait six more for their next one too, because the thought of a world without SO HIDEOUS is so… well, hideous.
Rating: 9/10
None But A Pure Heart Can Sing is set for release on December 3rd via Silent Pendulum Records.
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