HARDCORE ANAL HYDROGEN — Chimaera Monstrosa (review)

HARDCORE ANAL HYDROGEN — Chimaera Monstrosa album cover

Album · 2021 · Avant-garde Metal

4/5 · 2021-10-19
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