HYMN - Hymn (Review)

Written by: The Administrator

Do you enjoy jarring music? If so, yer in luck: Hymn, today's band/self-reported "aging idiots" in question, are the absolute living embodiment. This release is a clanging and boisterous romp, a chaotic and jolting free fall through a gallery of outwardly weird punk, acidic skramz, and a homegrown variety of post-hardcore that perches on the experimental edge.

Over a seven track stretch, Hymn demonstrate an eclectic menace and intensity, presented in a lo-fi rough-n-ready form that feels designed for the frantic mess of a cramped live environment. I’m reminded fondly of drunken and impromptu 3AM noise rock shows that plagued my college years. Very few things have managed to capture that particular brand of sonic, social, and emotion disorientation.

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If your brain won’t shut up, this a highly relatable EP, and that's before you even move beyond the song titles. “Everything is Fucking Futile” and “There's No Running Away Because Wherever You Go There You Are,” to pick but two examples, sound less like selections from the tracklist and more like chapters of my anxiety-ridden inner monologue. Thankfully, the music matches the emotive core perfectly. The title track is a wildly chaotic fray, while followup “Fever Dream” is exactly that: a tense freefall into sickly hallucinogenic madness, complete with scattered emotive moments that serve to make you question the existence of the pandemonium.

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​The remaining five tracks follow suit, featuring equally abrasive and squelchy punk interrupted by  introspective passages offering brief respite. That said, a predictable formula never fully emerges–the oddity is consistent. Crushing drone riffage rears its fetid head. Sharp noise penetrates the fervor with eardrum-piercing violence. It’s a whiplash-inducing ride, to be sure.

​Hymn is raucous and emotive and unpredictable, listening to Hymn is a single sitting is honestly an overwhelmingly intense experience. When you’re craving that wildcard intensity, however, Hymn deliver in spades. It’s far from polished, and will likely be a hard sell to those of ye who prefer a little less of that gritty DIY aesthetic. However, if you're the type to seek out music wrought from a unfiltered tumultuous emotion, Hymn will serve ye well.

Hymn - Hymn was independently released Jan 17th, 2022. Find it here!

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Hymn can be found:
Bandcamp