UMUR
"Deviant Current Signal" is the debut full-length studio album by French technical extreme metal act Hacride. The album was released through Listenable Records in 2005.
The music on "Deviant Current Signal" is technically well played thrashy and groove based metal. I count artists like Meshuggah, Gojira, Strapping Young Lad, Soilwork and Pantera among the influences. The album features eight tracks. Six of the tracks are new studio recordings but the last two tracks on the album are demo tracks. Probably included to boost the total playing time beyond the 30 minute mark. Well that was my first thought, but the quality of the demo tracks are actually pretty high.
The music is guitar riff driven but it´s also dominated by the raw shouting vocals by Samuel Bourreau (which somewhat reminds me of Phil Anselmo from Pantera without ever reaching the same intensity level though). The rythm section plays tight and varied. Songs like the energetic opener " Human Monster" and the more mid-paced "Typo" are high quality tracks. But that´s the general picture of the material on the album.
The musicianship is solid. In addition to the "regular" rock/metal instrumentation of guitars, bass and drums, "Deviant Current Signal" also features the occasional use of synths as atmosphere enhancers.
The sound production is decent and suits the music well.
"Deviant Current Signal" doesn´t quite reach the excellence of the best albums by contemporaries like Meshuggah, Gojira, Strapping Young Lad, but less is sometimes enough and overall the album comes off as professionally produced, well played and relatively well written too. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.