By John Sturm
Sheffield has offered us many things over the years: Arctic Monkeys, Bring Me The Horizon, Def Leppard, Joe Cocker and Pulp (to name a few). Add to that list Hiram with their latest release See The Thing Within The Thing. So how does this album (and band) match up to that list.
‘See The Thing’ opens the album with a sense of foreboding; strings flap against fret boards with a gut wrenching rumble as if Black Sabbath have taken a load of mogadon, eaten a load of and been left alone in a graveyard (with recording gear obviously). It’s tantalising, you are waiting for a riff so enormous to kick in that you can barely contain yourself. Then the song ends. Bugger. Still this can only be the start of something great!!
Unfortunately, it’s not. That opening track essentially sums up the album. It has potential but never realises this potential. But I don’t want you to think that this is a record without merits. Far from it. There is much to savour here (musically) both ‘Winner Dies Last (Aspiration)’ and ‘Respiration (Within The Thing)’ take their cues from Tool with the latter song featuring some nice melodic interludes. ‘Conspiration’ has some throat wrenching vocals and a genuinely well placed jam section that feels jazzy in nature, almost like the first fingers of dawn light after a night of bad dreams. Then some bizarrely Beach Boys-esque “bop bop” backing vocals appear before things ramp back up again with discordant guitars and ominous low notes ending with a riff that you wish had shown up earlier in the song it's that good!
The final track is a 17 minute epic, ‘It Can’t Come Quick Enough’. There’s a great start with sung vocals and melodic music reminiscent of the wistfulness of The Kinks. Some very jazzy chords and some great solo runs up and down the fret board before the lyrics end at 4 min mark. This means that we have 13 mins of instrumental ahead. It does take some interesting turns and certainly evokes the spirit of Zappa….. but…. it all feels slightly superfluous. Perhaps I just don't get the vibe or whatever but it felt tacked on like an afterthought. The song would have been better split into two separate tracks and could have had a third instrumental song on the album. It never seems to go anywhere, there's no building towards a release
And this is essentially the problem I have with this entire release. It’s very, very samey. You have a low tuned sludge riff then a bit of melodic jazzy jams and that’s it really. Dynamics in a song aren't just loud-then-quiet-then-loud again. Varying the pace and intensity of the music makes for a more engaging album otherwise it just drags and the last thing a band with a 17 min song wants is bored listeners. There is clearly great musicianship in this band and they have the potential to do great things. But on this album it’s a case of close, but no cigar.
