After its heyday in the 2000s, it cannot be said that the aggrotech scene is enjoying the same success it did during the MySpace era. However, in addition to the evergreen veterans who continue to do their thing in their own corner, the last few months have seen a wave of nostalgia for the genre: Dawn of Ashes and Aesthetic Perfection made a comeback to their roots, while Unter Null finally returned... Polish band H.EXE, meanwhile, are awakening from a deep slumber of more than ten years with Anthems of the Unseen Tide, whose artwork and cover should already give you a clue: this smells like New England, tentacles and unspeakable horrors! Their previous album ended with The Music of Erich Zann, an obvious tribute to the master of Providence...
We wouldn't dare imagine Lovecraft with fake fluorescent dreadlocks doing his best moves to a distortion-laden Eurodance mix. A lot can happen in a decade, and H.EXE today, under the corrupting influence of time and the whispers of the Great Old Ones, has mutated. Menacing guitars have made their appearance, as we can hear from At the Threshold: Odo's saturated incantations still bite, the coldness of the synthesizers imposes a clinical horror... and heavy riffs add to the gloom. Cleverly, H.EXE has always managed to avoid the most distressing clichés of the genre by maintaining an approach where darkness and aggression take precedence over lazy musical gimmicks and overly shimmering colours.
Anthems of the Unseen Tide lives up to its name: packed into a little over half an hour, the album is a succession of fierce and intense anthems. We appreciate the sinister, minimalist melodies that give the tracks their horrific tone and allow us to catch our breath between guitar assaults (Sunless Tides, Elder's Lair, which could easily have embraced its grandiose symphonic beginning!). The pace only slows down at the end of the race with Sphere on Sphere, where cosmicism and abyssal darkness creep along with an apocalyptic slowness that is rich in evocations: the ruins of cities with impossible angles becoming the ideal dance floor for cultists. One can enjoy the contrast between the Lovecraftian universe, strongly reminiscent of the late 18th/early 20th century, and the modernity of the sound, creating an anachronism that ultimately makes sense: the laws of time and space are twisted under the influence of some unnameable entity! The song titles are chanted during the choruses, making them easy to remember, while the heavy guitars hammer the last nail in the coffin without false modesty or artificial subtlety. H.EXE hits hard with a directness, generosity and energy that delight and plunge us into a universe that, like their name, blends mysticism and cyber aesthetics.
There is a twist in Anthems of the Unseen Tide: H.EXE has certainly evolved but has not forgotten its roots, and each track is available in two versions: Initial and Legacy, the latter leaving industrial metal aside to recall the modern dark electro sound of previous albums. This choice is surprisingly relevant, as it highlights the atmospheric work by offering versions that are less heavy but also more menacing and slower without their explosive riffs. In these stripped-down versions, we appreciate, for example, the theatricality of The Old Museum and the hypnotic tone of That Thing Within.
What's more, by opting for a relatively short set and focusing on constant energy, H.EXE can afford the luxury of hitting us with every curse twice, as it all flies by at a pace that protects us from premature fatigue or aching limbs! Big boom-boom, nasty guitars, Lovecraft and artists who, rather than clearly opting for a musical direction, leave us free to choose our side: sometimes you have to appreciate the simple pleasures, especially when they are delivered with as much enthusiasm and skill as here.
