Hypoxia - Abhorrent Disease

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HYPOXIA bears itself within the niche that is death metal wherein they illustrate the brevity of life plainly with their demonstrative riffs and decrepit vocals. Based out of Queens, New York HYPOXIA has been going strong since 2009—when they were known as AETHER—and have managed themselves a demo, an EP, and two albums. While they don’t bolster themselves as providing anything new or being anything of exception to the standard mode, they are unabashed and trudge through the hallowed wastes of the genre with a malign sound and a penchant for perseverance.

Their sophomore album, “Abhorrent Disease,” opens up on the waters of “Dark Desires” a speed fueled deluge of malevolent indulgence. The pungent vocals cut through immediately toppling every other instrument as the listener is greeted with the rasp fueled knell. The vocals themselves are well contained departing from the convention of inaudible screaming, and while that semblance is still present it does not define the vocal tones as a whole, at certain points the vocals become shrill to juxtapose the guttural delivery.

The percussion work is the most notable feature of the album, despite near every song being built on blast beats a lot of personality is shown through the accents and the fills, with the staccato hits being spot on and perfect as well such as in “Unhallowed Unforeseen” with the snare bouncing in and out of prominence in an odd but very interesting manner. “Enslaving Cage” is a good example of  a well put together song as each section mostly flows into one another very well, which also plays off of staccato notes. The album ends on an acoustic instrumental entitled “Failures of the Festering Flesh,” a sullen departure from the rest of the album absent from all but two acoustic guitars, showcasing the band’s composition skills with hints of baroque and neoclassical influences shown within the measures.

The overall mix of the album is itself grand, no instrument topples over another in a bid for dominance nor do they manage to drown out each other. The vocals are crisp and dirty, a great and notable mix for the style; the guitars are even and defined from one another despite their similar tone, as heard in “Possessed,” where each guitar maintains its own identity separate from one another; the bass is just the right volume wherein it is audible but neither muddies the soundscape nor is itself too quiet to provide any backbone to the music; and the drums are mixed expertly with each crash, tom, snare, hi-hat, ride, and kick being distinct from one another.

“Abhorrent Disease” is a unique album with a defined sound, anyone familiar with the genre will recognize the potential of the band yet will more than likely not be impressed by the individuality of the music.

Songwriting: 7
Originality: 5
Memorability: 6
Production: 9