‘Hemlock’, now on their 4th album, is a band based out of Las Vegas, Nevada in the USA having formed in 1993. They are categorised into the Heavy/Thrash metal genre. These guys are currently on tour with ‘Ministry’ and ‘Meshuggah’ and proudly state on their website that they “continue setting examples to bands to work hard towards their goals and not wait around for a handout from the industry”.
Lyrics are reflective and appear to be experiences and feelings felt by the band members. Often referring to how bad things are and the state of relationships, people’s mindsets and commenting on notorious figures such as Charles Manson (‘Red Sky Revolution’) and the perceived similarities with the government and religious organisations!
There are a lot of similarities to ‘Pissing Razors’, ‘Machine Head’ and ‘Down’. Heavy down-tuned thrash, with chugging rhythm sections (‘Ministry – Jesus Built My Hotrod’ similarities), especially on tracks like ‘No Time for Sorrow’ and ‘Red Sky Revolution’. The former track is a particular groovy number, it’s not original, but there are some good licks there. Vocally, it’s a brutal Rob Flynn style, with some leanings towards Phil Anselmo, at some stages there are death growls, but only for a brief second or two. Just like the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, there is not a lot in the way of guitar solos at all, it all tends to base itself around song groove, with occasional overlaid harmonics and sliding riffs.
I have to admit, by the 5th track ‘Backstabber’, the lines “no patience, no patience” is definitely applicable here, and I find myself getting bored if I am honest. It appears that these wonderful chugging rhythms are the same through most tracks making them all sound extremely similar to one another. Some spoken word lyrics break the balance a little bit.
‘What You Don’t Know’ has a more in the form of ball grabbing and wakes you up, with some interesting break up’s in the fast pace. ‘And the Friendship Corrodes’ starts out like a typical death metal track, but then it descends into more of the same.
On the whole, it is a good album, whilst on the plus side it is very consistent with clinically perfect production, but you do feel like you want a little bit more from this band. They are brutal in their delivery, and I can imagine on stage this would be good, but its lacks a little originality and is quite repetitive. But then again, this is just my opinion; check these guys out for yourself.
http://www.hemlockworld.com/
http://www.myspace.com/hemlock
