HYPERIA: The Serpent's Cycle (THRASH): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

It may not be obvious to you, but it's actually a girl belching into Hyperia's microphone. Marlee Riley looks rather sweet, though, and you'd think she'd sing in a symphonic metal band rather than a raging death thrash outfit. Make no mistake about it, the Canadian is a follower of Angela Gossow and Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy) and her band likes meticulous yet melodic brutality that blasts away.

After two full-blown butcheries, the second of which dates back only to last year, and which have put Hyperia on the map as one of the genre's most promising up-and-comers, the band are already spitting out their third effort. Proof that Hyperia is bubbling over with ideas and the will to fight. Although they've made a name for themselves but are still operating in the second division, the quartet richly deserve a wider audience than their own. "The Serpent's Cycle" shows that they have what it takes to go far and higher. Starting, of course, with the singer, who screams in a high-pitched voice with equal ease. The band's murderous Children Of Bodom-like riffs, shaded by virtuoso neo-classical solos, are also to be commended. A steamroller rhythm that Annihilator, the eternal matrix of Canadian metal, would not disavow, completes the picture.

A mix of thrash, death and heavy metal, the successor to "Silhouettes of Horreur" gallops at full throttle for fifty minutes that never go soft, harvesting corpses with battle-hardened energy and the precision of a deadly goldsmith. And yet, throughout, Hyperia have the good taste not to sacrifice their catchy melodies on the altar of violence. The result is an album that is certainly hard-hitting, thanks in no small part to the colourful performance (in red, of course) of its frontwoman, but is also surprising in its constant ability to polish its message. This makes "The Serpent's Cycle" all the more implacable. As they did with ABBA's 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' (!), the Canadians have fun covering a song that is light years away from their register. It's Heart's 'Crazy On You' that gets the sulphate treatment, an improbable yet hugely convincing reworking. With ferocity, the band reappropriate this AOR track, blackening it with an astonishing raging harshness that makes for one of the most jubilant moments of the listening experience.

"The Serpent's Cycle" confirms that Hyperia are indeed one of the most offensive and inspired thrash death bands of the new generation. The fact that it's driven by a young woman is obviously not to be sniffed at, and does give it a kind of sexy bestiality, but it's only incidental in the end, as the quartet redouble their unbridled ardour, which stands on its own. - Official website

HYPERIA

THE SERPENT'S CYCLE

AUTOPRODUCTION

THRASH