‘With Joy And Fierce Happiness Through The Incomparable Path’ – does not sound like a experimental Death-Metal at all, right? But it’s the (somewhat simplified) title of the debut full-length by Varese-, Italy, based duo Hadit. And it is indeed something!
The first look is always the greatest; when looking at the wonderful artwork for Hadit’s first full-length, one is spellbound by the contrast between the three colors used – rusty gold, black and a wonderful light grey – depicting a seemingly dead rider on a dromedary with hands raised towards the dark sky on which a beautiful woman is seen spread across the sky naked, holding a crescent moon in her hands and looking down on priest and at the one holding the record in his hands with a view challenging, condescending and luring at the same time. After having looked at this really enchantingly beautiful piece of art, one might note the name Raffaele Ralzillo in his memory of “to check out”-visual artists.
Furthermore, one will notice the somewhat mystic song titles – e.g. “A Digression And Her Eternal Domain Above The Atmosphere” or “A Submission Of Rage For Propulsion Divine”. Quickly it becomes clear that this band is not one of those easy to understand death metal bands. Many of the song-titles have a to do with a bodily movement of some kind - “Digression”, “Propulsion”, “Retaking”, “Quest” or “Submission” - also have to do with a certain bodily movement, combined with a philosophical idea: “Eternal Domain”, “Propulsion Divine” - a notion that words can be combined even though they might present a paradox. And there is also some kind of ambiguity in the combination of the music with the words used – the titles are very philosophical, yet the music is some of the most primal you might hear this year. Looking at the whole thing from these two perspectives it is already a sure thing: this record is not your average death metal release, although that should already have been clear, when noticing that this record is released by Sentient Ruin, one of the most expert labels in all things heavy.
Musically, this release is interesting but could be even more interesting. The opening track “The Unfathomable Omnipresence Of The Sister Of Sleep” shows a band capable of developing some really nice, near jazzy-rhythms and these highly interesting patterns are still there in the other tracks, but sometimes they are washed away too much by the Hurricane-Katrina-like force of the guitar riffs and the near omnipresent double-bass attacks on the bass drums. A few times too often we get the feeling that the band could show much, much more if they just let go off the expectations of the genre. Do not misunderstand these points of criticism: With Joy And Ardour… is a really good Death-Metal record, but if one listens to, e.g., the middle of “V – The Shredder Of The Most Rooted Archetypes” (after 2:20 seconds) you witness an immense change in the drumming and it goes from blastbeat attacks to some good, very schematic fills on the toms and the snares without any bass drum usage – thus the speed is more or less kept at a high pace but the brutality of the attack is taken out. That way it gives the whole passage a totally different feel. Like the lighting of a new candle – just before the blastbeats set in again after a while. This ability to give the songs (or song parts) a significantly different element just by changing the drumming a bit is really a promising sign for things to come. That must also be noted – whatever the duo does in their songs – they are really good musicians with honest skills, and that becomes quite obvious when listening to With Joy And Ardour….
Underneath these hurricane – like attacks one can find a lot of small changes on this debut and if you are up for a close listening session after which you can say for yourself that you “got that record”, then this is it. Accessible, but not too quick. It is hard, but it can step back a bit. It is released by a specialized label. But most importantly: It’s just good, hard-hitting music!
