Hacride

With the recent success of Gojira, French label Listenable gains more momentum to root out the best metal acts that are virtually unknown on this side of the pond. Poitiers’ Hacride mine Strapping Young Lad’s wall of noise for starters, injecting stunning doses of Death/Control Denied progressions. Despite its old Fear Factory leanings, opening cut "Perturbed” is but an appetiser to the band’s overall aggression. "Fate” (and later "Vision of Hate”) begins with acoustic pickings like Ill Niño then firmly drops into an off-kilter Meshuggah stance. Covering Barcelona’s Ojos de Brujo, "Zambra” is a marvellous world prog fest with Sepultura trappings, Santana-like flourishes, and hip-hop rapping en español. "Liquid” features fascinating fret board work from guitarist Adrien Grousset, aping Eddie Van Halen’s "Little Guitars,” while "Cycle” furthers the SYL/Meshuggah worship. "Deprived of Soul” sports a Katatonia-meets-Atheist coda (expanded in "Ultima Necat”), while "Strength” reprises Fear Factory’s once classic sound, with vocalist Samuel Bourreau matching the even tones of Gojira’s Joe Duplantier. "On the Threshold of Death” combines all these facets into a multi-layered, polyrhythmic juggernaut. Like its namesake organism, Amoeba extends its pseudopodia to envelop different styles, leaving Hacride’s amorphous yet distinctive signature for all to explore.