A month before the release of Trame Noire via Pelagic Records, Hypno5e began showcasing their new album to the public. The third date of their tour took place in Lyon, at the Marché Gare. Fans of unpredictable progressive metal, heavy riffs and more contemplative lulls knew they mustn’t be late: Hippotraktor, also part of the Pelagic roster, promised to pack a real punch right from the opening act of this evening organised by Mediatone.
HIPPOTRAKTOR
There are several heated debates amongst the uninitiated: which is stronger, a hippopotamus or a tractor? And why not call themselves TRAKTOROTAMUS? Are they cousins of Pothamus? In the front row are the connoisseurs – the people who already know that Hippotraktor’s frontman, Stefan De Graef, also plays in the amazing Psychonaut – but there are also a few young kids who’ve put on their best AC/DC T-shirts to show that they, too, are connoisseurs – the real deal.
Hippotraktor recently released their album Annihilist, as highlighted by Oblivion Walker, which kicked off the set. In the studio, we appreciate the shifting atmospheres, those riffs that, seemingly effortlessly, skilfully blend pachydermic heaviness with complexity, and the thick, gritty texture of visceral vocals. In the front rows, where the sound is never quite up to scratch, it’s the rhythm section that really stands out, with Lander De Nyn’s drumming taking centre stage in the mix. What we lose in subtlety, we gain in percussion, whilst the music’s slight ‘Karnivool meets Gojira’ feel also reminds us of Heretoir’s recent developments, with that blend of influences and the ability to combine accessibility with depth.
At the start of the concert, there is a brief pause between each track – a silence about which De Graef jokes and reassures the audience: “It’s all part of the show!” We had expected a setlist devoted mainly to Annihilist, but the band strikes a balance with Stasis and several tracks from their debut album Meridian, which ultimately features most prominently in the concert.
Stepping back a little from the stage, you'd appreciate the nuances better, but you'd lose the frontman’s infectious energy (who, incidentally, is often seen in profile – that must be bit of a ‘prog / post-everything’ thing that happens from listening to Tool and Amenra!). In fact, he seems to be cramped for space, wedged between his bandmates, whilst those who still could were indulging in some impressive hair-flinging. Ultimately, whether it’s a hippopotamus or a tractor, it doesn’t really matter – the vocabulary isn’t exactly one of airy lightness, and Hippotraktor delivers several thoroughly crushing seismic shocks.
If phrases like “progressive metal with djent and mathcore influences” put you off – making you picture a horde of moustachioed hipsters spouting long-winded essays to explain why you’ve completely missed the point of the music – fear not: despite their technical mastery, Hippotraktor aren’t here to bore us with a pompous display, but rather with overwhelming shifts in atmosphere, featuring massive, menacing sludge-like shadows. The result is sufficiently embodied and sincere to draw the audience in. Admittedly, one could have fun comparing the music to all sorts of things, from the bands mentioned above to a heavy post-metal/prog mishmash that might also bring to mind Haken, The Ocean or even Cult of Luna, but it’s done with enough soul and inner fire to stand out and bring moments of unexpected, pure elegance to the fore amidst all this talk of pachyderms and tractors. And they didn’t leave the stage without signing their setlist for the little ones in the front row. So sweet.
HYPNO5E
Hypno5e loves obscurity; indeed, this is one of the themes of Trame Noire, whose title evokes a system designed to protect biodiversity from light pollution. The musicians take their places on stage in the darkness, ghostly silhouettes that one can barely make out, and begin in their very simple manner with their recent track Lost Fires. As usual, there’s no question of communicating in any way other than through the music, at least not until the lights come back on. You feel at ease in the darkness, each of us in our own little bubble, perfect for the melancholic reveries of Emmanuel Jessua and his bandmates. Then, it’s a steamroller. The only predictable thing about Hypno5e is precisely their ability to always surprise us, to take us on a journey in all sorts of different directions within the same track. The riffs become hypnotic, Jessua screams into the dark, and the band then takes us on a long, eventful journey through their discography – one that defies classification to such an extent that we end up applying vague, evocative labels: ‘cinematic metal’ or ‘avant-garde’. Hypno5e’s world is so unique, so deeply intimate, that their music ultimately sounds like nothing but Hypno5e, whether in its moments of calm or its violent bursts of energy.
A new album is on the way, certainly, but there’s no question of forgetting the rest tonight – particularly the album Acid Mist Tomorrow, which is quickly brought to the fore with Gehenne’s two parts. Whilst the lighting seems to erase the musicians, reducing them to mere wandering shadows, we appreciate how certain scenes emerge from this twilight– chiaroscuro scenes with contrasts as striking as those in their compositions. Hypno5e’s music is a ravaged, arid and vast landscape, a place conducive to solitude and to the spectres that seem to manifest themselves at the turn of a sample or a moment of introspection.
The band plays for over an hour and a half, a duration that allows them to put together a varied set: after the stormy sounds of Lava From the Sky and Slow Steams of Darkness, Part II – Solar Mist, just as the concert reaches its halfway point, the musicians take their seats on stools for an acoustic interlude. Tio gives us a chance to catch our breath, to remind ourselves just how captivating their unplugged tracks are (they can bring A Backward Glance on a Travel Road out of the cupboard whenever they like!)… but also to catch a glimpse of the faces behind those shadows on stage!
Melancholy swells until it erupts; poetry transforms into a frenzied, raw exorcism as A Distant Dark Source and Acid Mist Tomorrow plunge the Marché Gare into a whirlwind of raw emotions. Hypno5e wrings us out. There’s one unmistakable sign: nobody’s speaking. No annoying jokers being too loud whilst the music plays. Hypno5e’s world naturally commands silence, a respect bordering on reverence, with everyone taking the opportunity to return to haunt their own devastated inner landscapes.
Just moments before the finale, in the dark, during a brief pause in the middle of Acid Mist Tomorrow, the closing words of Camus’s The Stranger echo through the hall: “For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration”. There was indeed a huge crowd at the Marché Gare, as it was a full house. They were howls, that’s for sure. Right then, Manu, Charles, Jonathan, Pierre: if it makes you happy, we’re happy to let you believe they were hows of execration. Besides, those weren’t hearts made with their fingers; they were nooses. As usual, the masters of avant-garde, poetic, cinematic progressive post-metal (add whatever adjectives you like) were masterful, offering us a cocoon of darkness that was as thrilling as it was welcoming. Let’s hope, then, that many more crowds will turn up to witness and howl on their future executions, night after night, for that is indeed all we wish for them!
