Four years have passed since Unseen Horror Scenes, Hocico’s previous album, Hyperviolent. Yet the Mexican masters of dark electro don’t seem to have been away for that long: between their remixes, collaborations and singles that began coming out almost two years ago, their icy fury has regularly resurfaced to shake up our musical radar. Nevertheless, we always welcome a new opportunity to revisit their sinister, aggressive and uncompromising world… whilst also being aware that, over time, a routine has set in: we go in with our little list of expectations, the boxes we fully intend to tick as we go along!
To tell the truth, we’re going to tick a lot of boxes! If there’s one thing you can’t accuse Hocico of, it’s being inconsistent. If there’s one thing you can accuse Hocico of, it’s not being particularly surprising. Choose your side. Hocico are surgeons: with clinical precision, they take a wicked pleasure in butchering us, dissecting us and extracting our blood-soaked organs with unrivalled reliability and expertise. The heaviness of Dark Paradigm with its instantly recognisable and memorable pounding mid-tempo, where you can feel the threat creeping up; the explosive yet always restrained tension of Playground of Scars, to which a few gloomy melodies add welcome nuances; and finally the snarling eruption of Traitors before the melancholic, cinematic instrumental interlude Marked by the Dark: in its opening moments, indeed, Unseen Horror Scenes ticks quite a few boxes!
It unravels like a showcase of Hocico’s talents, a masterclass in crafting eerie atmospheres and killer beats. Racso Agroyam and Erk Aigrag delve particularly deeply into the influence of the online world, and the cowardice, hatred, paranoia and addiction that our constant connectivity breeds. A highly topical theme, in line with the usual obsessions of industrial music and the relationship between man and machine, but also very much of their time (can you hear some teenagres zombified by their gizmos mumbling "boooomers"?)! Mercilessly, Hocico confronts us with our vices, still making us nod our heads along with their visceral pleasure intact, whilst reminding us of all our failings.
As is so often the case, the fastest tracks aren’t necessarily the most formidable (the ferocity of Traitors or the exhilarating yet slightly too familiar rhythms of Symphony of Rage, for example, will prove less memorable than those moments when Hocico gives us the sense of an ever-present danger, of a monster lurking in the shadows, ready to devour us). The mysterious, evocative instrumental Where Darkness Leaks In, which once again illustrates Agroyam’s genius in this area, or the apocalyptic Twisted Promises (I Suffocate), are, on the other hand, new abysses of darkness into which we plunge with pleasure. Yet it is in two of its wildest displays of aggression that Hocico manages to surprise us the most, first with Blood on the Wires, whose industrial metal leanings seem to be a continuation of their cover of Ministry’s N.W.O. on the previous album, and then Hey Tú!, a searing, furious anthem featuring Rafael Reyes of Prayers, who brings his bubbling rhythm and is a storm of fresh air.
With a more than substantial running time (the standard edition of the album runs to nearly 1 hour 10 minutes), Unseen Horror Scenes is generous and still manages to bring something fresh to the table, even though seven singles were released during its promotional campaign. Is it a revolutionary album? No. Did we expect Hocico to completely reinvent themselves after a career spanning more than thirty years? No. On the other hand, it is a ruthless demonstration of an unrivalled talent for blending horrific atmospheres with infectious rage, an exploration of darkness that is both chilling and gut-wrenching, a succession of deliciously tortured atmospheres and hits that hit the mark. It’s an awaited and expected album: it offers no real surprises but we were still eager to renew with these reliable, ever-satisfying artists. Brilliant geniuses with slightly mechanical automation. Are we so spoilt that we have reason to complain?
