HIMSA “Death is Infinite”
HIMSA’s debut full length, “Ground Breaking Ceremony,” was just what its titled claimed – truly original and quite worthy of a holiday. Nearly two years since its release, I still consider that to be one of the most inspiring and bone-crushing hardcore albums ever made, and it has not earned its proper respect in the hardcore community. In this time span though, HIMSA has gone through another round or so of line-up changes, including the loss of their awesome vocalist (HIMSA at first spawned from the ashes of three exiles from the epic sXe band TRIAL). However, taking over vocal duties is John Pettibone, who stirred things into a frenzy with the highly underappreciated NINEIRONSPITFIRE (and maybe UNDERTOW, but i’m not entirely sure). In any rate, he’s got a killer screaming voice, and it fits the new direction of HIMSA really well. What is this new direction you ask? Gone are the wacky off-beats and spine-tingly disjointed rhythms, as they have been replaced with a much faster, more straight-forward metalcore sound, full of whallop, and topped off with a scorching line of flaming napalm. There’s only four new tunes on this EP, and a hidden live track stuffed in a few minutes later – which I suppose is more or a less teaser an upcoming full length. Regardless though, the new material smokes hard, and dark. The politically charged lyrics of prior material has taken a back seat to the overtones of death, despair and similar ilk. Did I fail to mention yet that HIMSA is now a six-piece featuring three guitarists? Yeah…and trust me, that guitar power shows. I have a difficult time recommending 4 song eps, especially when there’s only about 12 minutes of music, so i’ll leave it at this: HIMSA are awesome, old form or new – get acquainted with them, no doubt you’ll be impressed.
Revelation
