Back To Where You’ve Never Been

Author: Primož Novak

Artist: Hacride
Label: Indie Recordings
Release: year_month
Length: 41:22
Rating: 4/5

You could argue that French outfit Hacride are just another typical modern French band. That means you can expect technically sharp music that looks to today’s extremes like Meshuggah, and of course death metal. Hacride aren’t exactly pioneers of French extremity, though. Scarve, Yyrkoon and of course Gojira got there first.

Hacride showed potential on their earlier albums, despite criticism that they clung too closely to nu-metal rhythms, but they had a lot more feel for groove. On their previous record, Lazarus, Hacride wanted to bring their complex groove closer to atmospheric, ambient-tinged Tool-style music. But attempts like that are pretty risky and in most cases they fall flat. And with Hacride, too, you could say the experiment wasn’t the most successful.

With Back To Where You’ve Never Been, Hacride prove what they do best. They stay »groovy« and complex, but don’t overdo it. It’s been 4 years since the last album, and in the meantime both the vocalist and the drummer have been swapped out. The new vocalist takes a bit of getting used to at first, because the tone of the clean vocals sounds like some adolescent alt-metal band pushed mostly by MTV. On the other hand, the mellow clean-vocal sections try way too hard to sound like Tool. Luckily the harsh vocals push that bitter aftertaste of the clean singing into the background and make Hacride that much more attractive.

The album’s bright spot is the rhythm section. You can really hear the effect of the drummer change. That’s Florent Marcadet, who also plays in post-metal outfit Klone. A more versatile drummer has brought a lot more dynamics. Take the track Eridification of the Fall, which is also one of the most interesting and polished songs on the album.

Hacride’s 4th studio album is definitely worth your attention. The punchy parts stand out; only the dreamy parts don’t quite deliver. Over a good 41 minutes the French definitely impress. The production is solid too, with a modern sound, though a few tracks feel a bit stretched. Credit where it’s due: Hacride haven’t run out of steam. With this album they prove they’ve still got an ace or two up their sleeve.

Lineup

Florent Marcadet – drums
Benoist Danneville – bass
Luiss Roux – vocals
Adrien Grousset – guitars

Production

Frank Hueso

Tracklist