I always thought of Himsa as a strictly hardcore band—they seem to come through town on hardcore/punk package tours—as they will again on Friday, April 16th with Bleeding Through at Rock Island. I never really gave them much thought—but this CD is. . ..Metal!
The hardcore influence is apparent in the tracks “Jacob Shock” and “It’s Nights Like this that Keep up Alive,” but most of the tracks keep sending me back to the press release to make sure their from Seattle, Washington and not Gottenberg, Sweden. They play what I like to call “new classic metal,” which consists of melodic twin guitar leads that bounce between traditional metal and old school thrash (handled ably here by Kirby Charles Johnson and Sammi Curr): tight, hard hitting baselines, clean snare, thick but not over dominating double bass drums, and vocals that are more aggressive than falsetto.
I’ve seen them described as a cross between Iron Maiden, In Flames, and Cro-Mags, and I normally hate comparisons, but this one is pretty right on. There’s a Maiden-esque guitar solo on the closing track, “When Midnight Breaks” (maybe a nod to Iron Maiden’s classic to “Two Minutes to Midnight”?). Other stand out tracks include the opening one-two punch of “Dominion” and “Rain to the Sound of Panic.” The aforementioned “Jacob Shock” and “Loveless and Goodbye,” with its over dubbed vocals, add a dark, almost demented effect.
Solid!
