Noise Chaos War

As I’ve once stated in an earlier review, I have a strange affinity for obscure-as-hell acts, those who just plug along without a single thought of hanging it up. That love of metal (or rather, the love of performing) that keeps these groups afloat always tugs at the corners of my mouth in terms of appreciation and a touch of humor. Also, seeing those old timers blasting their classic wares onstage makes for some serious good times the likes of which all those plentiful younger, local acts aren’t able to hold a candle to. As a result, I’d known of this here HIRAX outfit for quite a while, but their relative obscurity has kept me from being able to check out any of their recording works thus far.

And so, with this one in my hands, I can finally see how time has fared for one of the less talked-about, redefining “underground” groups…

At the first track alone this “Noise Chaos War” album just drips with such old-schoolness it brings to mind the potentiality of tearing down the 1970s-era CBGB (Comic Book Guy’s Bar) with a BC-Rich; an unholy mixture of the pointless violence of punk with the cone-shaped focused aggression of thrash. One can detect a number of other like-minded acts that may (or not) have influenced such venomous chaos; the maddening speed of SLAYER, the monstrous production approach of death metal-era SEPULTURA, the melodic tendencies of EXODUS, all coming together for a 17-track riff-fest of two-dimensionality. While this sounds appealing to all those denim-vest-covered-in-band-logo-patches-wearin’ forty-somethings, it may end up staying with them, as kids these days, they of the three-second attention spans, probably wouldn’t appreciate what HIRAX is trying to get across. Even I of unfettered honesty and the most open of minds to music found it difficult at times to get into the swing of things as I went from track to track. Maybe it’s the chaotic approach, the repetitive nature, the so-deep-in-the-underground-they’ve-actually-made-it-to-China feel to the songs, but “Noise Chaos War” just didn’t throw me for a loop, despite all the double takes the album forces outta me. While there are good parts within each song, as heard by the delightfully out-of-tune guitars (with equally delightful mistakes in the performance), the popcorn-esque drumming, and the Bon-Scott-imitating-Jon-Tardy vocals, putting them all together creates a very ugly canvas of rusted blade butchering that, on my end, seems more likely to be relegated to “guilty pleasure”, worth only a listen or two when the need for a less-than-epic feel to metal is necessary. This comes through with the good (“French Pearl”, “Chaos and Brutality”), the bad (“Walk With Death”, “Barrage of Noise”) and the ugly (“Beyond the Church (Part One), “Lucifer’s Inferno”), creating an atmosphere that mirrors the GWAR/WHITE ZOMBIE-style craziness of the cover art.

In the end HIRAX may be a bit too nuts for me to really wrap my head around. Not that they don’t do their craft well (they really do), but it seems to take a very keen ear to really appreciate what they’re up to. At best I may come back to this once or twice in a while.