Hacride
Have I told you guys how much I love Groove metal? No? How about how much I love progressive metal? Hacride is a bit of both (with some Ambient and Death metal thrown in too)! Having never heard of them until a random search for groove metal, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I love their latest album, Lazarus. Aren’t true friends supposed to tell you about good stuff like this? Although, true to the About the Site page, I am impossibly bad at taking recommendations so perhaps someone had tried at one point. Hacride are from France, marking the first time I’ve enjoyed a French metal band, though probably more due to lack of trying than a reflection of the French metal scene.
They have three albums, but I listened to Amoeba, the second album and Lazarus, the latest album that came out in 2009. I was hooked by the second song off of Amoeba, “Fate” that has this pretty awesome pinch harmonic riff that I love. Later on the song has a pretty badass solo and a nice ambient interlude towards the end. Unlike that song, some songs on Amoeba aren’t as good as others. I could barely get through Zambra, which has a weird almost rap vocal style I couldn’t get into. That’s kind of expected in a fairly new progressive band trying to find what works though.
Unlike Amoeba, Lazarus has few downsides and is pretty fantastic the whole way through, though I found it interesting that on Amoeba, I favoured the screamy death metal sections more than the quiet interludes, whereas on Lazarus, I favoured the ambient spacey parts much more instead. Some of the drums seemed to me to have a bit of a Danny Carey (Tool) influence, such as on “A World of Lies”. One of the songs had a really great classical guitar piece where you could faintly hear the guitarist’s intakes of breath between bars. I’m not sure if that was intentional but it added a great emotional element to the mix. I didn’t catch the name of the song on this run through, but there will be many more listens, I’ll update when I hear it again. The vocalist has a great controlled scream and a really nice clean vocal as well, which seems a rare thing to me. The Lazarus album keeps the groove style while exploring more progressive song styles and showing off some pretty intricate songwriting throughout the album. Times like this I wish my writing did it justice.
Hacride is definitely in the “Favourites So Far” category for combining so much about what I love about metal, and also for having what seems like a band philosophy to constantly experiment. It’s those bands, I feel, that aren’t afraid to combine traditional different influences and move outside of what’s expected of them that will create the music the next generation will draw influence from. I hope the next album will be just as interesting as the last. Nice work, France!
I dig me some Hacride, although I tend to prefer Amoeba, Lazarus is still great.
They’re both good albums, but for me Lazurus didn’t have as many “wish they didn’t do that” moments. Still a ton of talent on both albums though, in my opinion!
The first song off of Lazarus is so ridiculous good it goes by in like two minutes
Gojira is another good French groove metal band. Their 3rd album “From Mars to Sirius” has the heaviest guitar tone this side of Electric Wizard
Yeah, I saw Gojira live and they were ok, but haven’t heard any album stuff. It’s hard to judge a live band before hearing what it’s “supposed to sound like” beforehand. Only bands that really appeal to me (like jakob) are going to sound amazing no matter what. That’s why I classify this as the first french metal band I’ve liked. Gojira may come later.
Yeah, I loved Lazarus. I never got Amoeba, but I’ve heard good things about it. This is one of those things where you need to disown your friends who knew of them yet didn’t recommend.
@Zeraninator Re: defriending the Hacride-hoarders : Good point. Matt, Sophus, GET OUT. (just kidding please stay <3) #weak
I like Hacride for a lot of the reasons Tyrant described, but for some reason, I haven’t gone back to them since that initial listen to their discography. I think it’s time for another approach to what I remember being really good music.
Hello.
I think the comments work fine now.
Thank you shu! <3
Can you put some dates on the articles? It might put a bit of a narrative spin on the whole thing. I was gonna offer to be a collaborator but i think maybe if this website does work it’ll be because of your personal touch.
There are dates at the bottom of the page, but maybe I should put them at the top to make it clearer!
I’ll definatly check them out. Also I added you to my list of bloggers on That Devil Music:)
You should, I like ‘em a lot! I added you to my links as well, I like your blog very much
Hacride is awesome. Om Mani is another great French groove metal band. They’re actually the ones who recommended Hacride to me.
nice!! thank you so much! Cant wait to hear them. Hope they are as good as hacride.
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