siLLy puPPy Three years in the making the Monaco based schizoid act HAH (formerly known as Hardcore Anal Hydrogen) returns in 2021 to unleash another monstrosity of musical madness in the form of its third overall full-length release CHIMAERA MONSTROSA which reflects its degree in the University of Mr Bungle with nods to a plethora of avant-garde and progressive freak shows which includes but not limited to Psudoku, EastWestBlastTest, Melt Banana, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Retox, Stench Price, Thin, The Locust, Kurushumi Gronibard, Dead Hour Noise, Melted Bodies, Bologna Violenya, Painkiller, Tryptamyne, Codex Orzhova, Naked City and Igorrr.

While the tones, timbres and instrumentation have always been diverse, on CHIMAERA the band expands into eight musicians offering not only the usual metal instrumentation of guitars, bass and drums but this time around also includes a flute, sitar, mandolin, Portuguese guitar, string section, tampura, mohan and saxophone. And of course there is still plenty of synthesized electronic breakcore and other crazy sounds to keep HAH’s relevance as one of the true bastard children of the Bunglers. While the previous two albums were quite varied, it’s fair to say that CHIMAERA MONSTROSA is even more so sounding more like Estradasphere than a psychotic grindcore band that lost its way as it did in the beginning.

Unlike “HyperCut” which began with a frenetically psychotic metal outburst in the form of “Jean-Pierre,” CHIMAERA rather opts to start out in the field of electronica and only unleashes the metal bombast on the second track “Failure In Progress” however on the third track “Quatre-quart au Thon” the band jumps into the weird influences of the noise rock band Melt Banana with cheerleader style vocals screaming from beneath a very weird psycho-groove which sounds somewhat like a mangled version of various moods from Mr Bungle’s “Disco Volante” album. Imagine thrash metal guitar wailing over a Melt-Banana anthem with some sort of Spaghetti Western guitar joining in. Truly demented and satisfyingly effective.

“Annuit Coeptis” stands out even in the world of HAH as it is a metal track but not a high tempo freakfest of blistering thrash and death metal. Rather it continues the Spaghetti Western guitar theme along with a vocal choir that sounds like it was inspired by Magma or Carl Orrf’s “Carmina Burana.” The metal is a simple mid-tempo chug but the overall effect is wild and crazy! “Venera” starts out with a zany weird time signature on keyboard and jazzy drums accompanying. It also offers somewhat of a gypsy swing bass groove along with more harmonized vocals and power chord metal guitar heft along with somewhat of a techno groove accompanying it all.

The tracks seem to get weirder as the album goes on. While “Narakas” innocently starts as some sort of electronic experiment it quickly jumps into metal and noise rock territories with the Melt-Banana vocals frantically offering jittery exclamations before transmogrifying completely into a soothing Indian sitar raga in the middle of the track. There are even sheep bleating. As a new keyboard riff joins in so does the metal heft and then it all sounds like some sort of weird space metal frenzy! Very original and because it all remains melodic, always accessible! The metal in this one is sort of doomy like old Black Sabbath.

“Akrikhr” offers a short 21-second frenetic burst of digital hardcore before the sultry “Sax Crusher” features a unique mix of atmospheric piano lounge rock with sax squawks before breaking into punk rock with bizarre electronic accompaniments. After the frenetic punk / metal attack, the loungy jazz exotica piano returns as does the John Zorn inspired sax weirdness. The album finishes with “LES-1” which starts with a spooky atmosphere and a piano that reverbs. While starting as nu jazz, it morphs into a Secret Chiefs 3 type of track which mixes Arab, Indian and other ethnic musical styles along with a cartoony delivery and metal guitar heft. The Melt-Banana vocals make a reprise.

While HAH began its career more on the hardcore punk meets metal bandwagon, this band has really matured into something much larger than life. While the influences are clear, HAH has done an excellent job at creating similarly minded music without falling into the trap of sounding too close to those who came before. For those who dig the crazy world of Mr Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, Estadasphere and similarly minded freakazoids, HAH is truly deserving of being in the top tier of these bands that effortlessly incorporated wide swaths of color into their musical palette all the while displaying dizzying amounts of virtuosic performances without it all seeming too flashy. This is really the perfect marriage between metal bombast, atmospheric ambience, global fusion and cross-spectrum constructs of the greater rock music universe. Experimental rock at its finest. HAH is here to get the last laugh :D

siLLy puPPy After unleashing their debut onto the world of avant-garde metal, the rare case of a metal band from the tiny principality of Monaco based HARDCORE ANAL HYDROGEN took their sweet time before releasing its sophomore followup. After shortening the rather obnoxious name to simply HAH, this wacky musical entity that clearly graduated from the University of Mr Bungle released HYPERCUT four years later in 2018. This is one of those bands that loves to indulge in extremes and engage in bipolar mood swings similar to not only the Bunglers but bands like Pryapisme, Estradasphere, Unexpect and quite a number of other similarly minded bands that love to let the extreme metal commingle with crazy disparate non-metal genres. While these types of bands seem to be a dime a dozen these days, very few can actually pull it off and release fascinating and ear-appealing albums.

HAH hit the ground running with its debut “The Talas Of Satan” and provided an even more exciting followup with HYPERCUT. This avant-garde smorgasbord of sounds starts things off with “Jean-Pierre” and makes it perfectly clear that this is an outrageously vicious metal act that just happens to dabble in electronica, ethnic sounds, loungy jazz, ambient and acoustic sounds as it unfolds it all in a punk fueled nonchalance all the while remaining anchored in extreme metal sounds ranging from thrash metal to death metal, grindcore and occasional classical heavy metal.

HYPERCUT continues the melodic compositions that milk every cadence for all its worth with some featuring bombastic metal riffing passages (such as the opening “Jean-Pierre”) while other tracks like “Phillip” taking a heady romp through the world of soundtrack classical score territory with little metal to be heard at all. This sophomore offering also increases the complexity with more uncommon signatures as well as moments of avant-garde angularity. Influences include Steve Reich, The Beatles, Meshuggah, Aphex Twin, Jean Michel Jarre, Pierre Henry, Little Richard, John Coltrane, George A. Romero and Napalm Death as claimed on HAH’s Bandcamp site. A couple tracks like “Bontemmieu” offer a bit of Django Reinhardt gypsy swing guitar gusto. The closing “Alain, l’homie télévitré” is one of the craziest most extreme with both metal fury, wickedly weird time signatures and all the creepy atmosphere you could possibly hope for.

Generally speaking the tracks are short and to the point offering a mix of extremely caustic metal guitar, bass and drum heft which are woven into digital hardcore electronica. Many tracks are around the two or three minute mark and those are the most obnoxiously loud and metallic of the lot. The only long track is the symphonic soundtracky “Phillip” which almost hits the nine minute mark. The musicianship is excellent as is the production. These guys have mastered all the genres included before attempting to throw them on the playground together. The editing, mixing and mastering is as artful as the most talented DJ and the metal aspects are also clearly professional in every manner.

Despite the desire to throw in many musical elements, HAH isn’t as extreme as say Mr Bungle where every cadence jumps into a different musical genre or unrelated flow. The tracks focus on a single style and are simply augmented with tones, timbres and crazy percussive beats. There’s some chiptune sounds, synthesized weirdness and the vocals are more in the grindcore camp with digital manipulation. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult to tell what’s a guitar and what’s a keyboard frenzy but overall it all blends together fairly well. Basically if you ask me, i would describe the metal like the latest Mr Bungle album “The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny” only more schizoid and littered with excursions into something completely new. For my tastes i love this kind of stuff and HYPERCUT makes the cut for sure!

siLLy puPPy Perhaps one of the only bands i’ve ever heard from the tiny principality of Monaco, HAH which is short for Hardcore Anal Hydrogen is a strange avant-garde metal band that hasn’t gone down the Gorguts road of atonal dissonance and creepy atmospheric otherworldliness but rather has somewhat adopted the more melodic approaches of Mr Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, Sigh, Igorrr and even noise bands like Melt Banana.

This band was formed all the way back in 2009 when Martyn Clement (guitar, backing vocals) and Sacha Vanony (vocals, keyboards, flute) honored each other’s divine freakery and discovered a passion for making crazy mind fuck metal. After forming a bonafide band, HAH released two independent releases titled “Fork You : ( ) { : | : & };::” and “Division Zero” before releasing this first label debut THE TALAS OF SATAN on the Apathia label.

Graced by a rather cool album cover art, THE TALAS OF SATAN is a rather cool album as well as it mixes all kinds of metal styles along with various world music and electronica. On this fairly brief yet frenetic expression of metal fusion we hear classic heavy metal, thrash metal, death metal, grindcore and trance metal mixed with Asian ethnic music, breakbeat and digital hardcore. While some bands can be quite sloppy in melding things together, HAH is very talented in how it all fuses together seamlessly.

Personally i’d say this band most reminds me of a more extreme metal oriented Secret Chiefs 3 as the mixing and production job are outstandingly brilliant. The ethnic elements don’t sound the least bit cheesy with real flutes, beautiful tribal percussion and other exotic instruments and as far as the metal goes these guys are the real deal as they nail all the genera perfectly. The death metal is balls to the wall, neoclassical solos erupt from time to time and best of all nothing sounds forced as everything organically unfolds at the proper pace.

While more often than not i’m left cold with these kinds of bands that fail to achieve what sounds good on paper, HAH actually pulls it off and leaves me wanting more! Luckily they have two more albums that come before and two more after so no lack of product. Highly recommended for all those avant-garde metal heads who like things on the melodic side. The ingenuity here is top notch and the satisfaction level is quite high.