Artist: Hideous Divinity

Album Title: LV-426

Label: Century Media Records

Date of Release: 23 April 2021

If ever there was a way for a band to ingratiate themselves with me, it would not be to create an EP based on the ‘Alien’ films. I watched these at university with mates who assured me that these films were some of the best ever. To say I was disappointed is a gross understatement. I distinctly remember getting to the end of the first film and thinking ‘is that it?’ I watched them all, just to say that I had done so, but to this day, I have never bothered to return. I realise I’m likely to receive a lot of flak from many of you all, but I’m nothing if not honest. To a fault, sometimes.

Anyway, moving on, ‘LV-426’ is a three-track EP from Italian technical death metal band Hideous Divinity and, as you may have guessed, it is based on the ‘Alien’ films. To be more precise, it is actually based around the second film in the trilogy, ‘Aliens’. Having made it perfectly clear that I couldn’t give a flying feather about the subject matter, I am now able to turn my attention to the music itself.

‘LV-426’ may only contain three songs that span sixteen minutes, with one being a cover, but I have no qualms in admitting that brevity does not, in this instance, have any bearing on the intensity of the music. This being my first dalliance with Hideous Divinity, I wasn’t anywhere near well-enough prepared for the music that I’d hear on this EP. It is brutal, technical, dramatic, and punishing in the extreme.

The first track is ‘Acheron, Stream Of Woe’ and it is a near seven-minute behemoth that does its best to bludgeon the listener to death, albeit with a certain amount of finesse and enjoyment. The intro is dark, dramatic, and cinematic as it ought to be given it’s subject matter. The tension builds expertly, only to be released via a thunderous explosion of technical death metal butchery. The riffs are swift, scything affairs, whilst the rhythm section is impossibly tight. ‘Catchy’ is not normally an adjective I’d throw at this kind of music, but despite the claustrophobic intensity of the material, complete with unnerving dissonance, I get dragged into the music, willingly giving in to the malevolent tumult that punishes my ears. However complex the music gets, everything is delivered with absolute precision, whilst there’s a surprising amount of room for the atmosphere to shine through, even if ‘shine’ is again completely the wrong adjective.

The second of two original tracks is ‘Chestburst’, just in case you’ve missed the ‘Aliens’ theme up until this point. It is less of an atmospheric piece and instead just goes for the jugular, with plenty of swift lead guitar flurries, as well as a mix of faster and slower sections to allow the heaviness of the material issue forth in both manners; fast or slow, Hideous Divinity are incredibly extreme-sounding and that’s to their credit. Overall, ‘Chestburst’ is a much more explosive affair, underlined by the fact that it disappears in the blink of an eye.

 If I hadn’t been told in the press release that the final track, ‘Delirium Trigger’ was a Coheed And Cambria song, I’d have never believed it. Compared to the previous two original cuts, this song is laced with a lot more pronounced melody, but not being a Coheed fan, that’s the only aspect that gives anything away. The song is very much in the Hideous Divinity vein, with technical prowess to be heard from every corner, and with the brutality and extremity that is their stock in trade.

In closing, regardless of the subject matter chosen on this EP, I’d happily have taken another clutch of songs to expand on the ideas put forth in the opening duo. This is heavy, complex, and extreme music pulled from the top drawer; it’s incredibly heavy and uncompromising, but it’s also incredibly fun and entertaining. I look forward to the next long player with anticipation, whilst attempting to dig out their back catalogue to see what lurks within.

The Score of Much Metal: 88%

Dessiderium – Aria

Cynic – Ascension Codes

TDW – Fountains

Hypocrisy – Worship

W.E.B. – Colosseum

Navian – Cosmos

NorthTale – Eternal Flame

Obscura – A Valediction

Nightland – The Great Nothing

MØL – Diorama

Be’lakor – Coherence

Hollow – Tower

Doedsvangr – Serpents Ov Old

Athemon – Athemon

Eclipse – Wired

Swallow The Sun – Moonflowers

Dream Theater – A View From The Top Of The World

Nestor – Kids In A Ghost Town

Beast In Black – Dark Connection

Thulcandra – A Dying Wish

Omnium Gatherum – Origin

Insomnium – Argent Moon EP

Kryptan – Kryptan EP

Archspire – Bleed The Future

Awake By Design – Unfaded EP

Cradle Of Filth – Existence Is Futile

Seven Spires – Gods Of Debauchery

Sleep Token – This Place Will Become Your Tomb

Necrofier – Prophecies Of Eternal Darkness

Ex Deo – The Thirteen Years Of Nero

Carcass – Torn Arteries

Aeon Zen – Transversal

Enslaved – Caravans To The Outer Worlds

A Dying Planet – When The Skies Are Grey

Leprous – Aphelion

Night Crowned – Hädanfärd

Brainstorm – Wall Of Skulls

At The Gates – The Nightmare Of Being

Rivers Of Nihil – The Work

Fractal Universe – The Impassable Horizon

Darkthrone – Eternal Hails

Thy Catafalque – Vadak

Terra Odium – Ne Plus Ultra

Hiraes – Solitary

Eye Of Purgatory – The Lighthouse

Crowne – Kings In The North

Desaster – Churches Without Saints

Helloween – Helloween

Fear Factory – Aggression Continuum

Wooden Veins – In Finitude

Plaguestorm – Purifying Fire

Drift Into Black – Patterns Of Light

Alluvial – Sarcoma

White Moth Black Butterfly – The Cost Of Dreaming – Album Review

Silver Lake by Esa Holopainen

Bloodbound – Creatures From The Dark Realm

Nahaya – Vital Alchemy

Frost* – Day And Age

Obsolete Theory – Downfall

Vola – Witness

Acolyte – Entropy

Dordeduh – Har

Subterranean Masquerade – Mountain Fever

Seth – La Morsure Du Christ

The Circle – Metamorphosis

Nordjevel – Fenriir

Vreid – Wild North West

Temtris – Ritual Warfare

Astrakhan – A Slow Ride Towards Death

Akiavel – Vae Victis

Gojira – Fortitude

Hideous Divinity – LV-426

Benthos – II

Evile – Hell Unleashed

Ninkharsag – The Dread March Of Solemn Gods

Bodom After Midnight – Paint The Sky With Blood

Morrigu – In Turbulence

Mother Of All – Age Of The Solipsist

Throne – Pestilent Dawn

Sweet Oblivion (Geoff Tate) – Relentless

Exanimis – Marionnettiste

Dvne – Etemen Ænka

Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined

Arion – Vultures Die Alone

Maestitium – Tale Of The Endless

Wode – Burn In Many Mirrors

Everdawn – Cleopatra

Unflesh – Inhumation

Mourning Dawn – Dead End Euphoria

Wheel – Resident Human

Wythersake – Antiquity

Odd Dimension – The Blue Dawn

Metalite – A Virtual World

Cryptosis – Bionic Swarm

Ghosts Of Atlantis – 3.6.2.4

Memoriam – To The End

Aversed – Impermanent

Secret Sphere – Lifeblood

Enforced – Kill Grid

Liquid Tension Experiment – LTE3

Turbulence – Frontal

Iotunn – Access All Worlds

Warrior Path – The Mad King

Stortregn – Impermanence

Mariana’s Rest – Fata Morgana

Orden Ogan – Final Days

Witherfall – Curse Of Autumn

Plague Weaver – Ascendant Blasphemy

Ephemerald – Between The Glimpses Of Hope

Paranorm – Empyrean

Einherjer – North Star

Epica – Omega

Humanity’s Last Breath – Välde

Simulacrum – Genesis

Forhist – Forhist

Evergrey – Escape Of The Phoenix

Empyrium – Über den Sternen

Moonspell – Hermitage

Infernalizer – The Ugly Truth

Temperance – Melodies Of Green And Blue EP

Malice Divine – Malice Divine

Revulsion – Revulsion

Demon King – The Final Tyranny EP

Dragony – Viribus Unitis

Soen – Imperial

Angelus Apatrida – Angelus Apatrida

Oceana – The Pattern

Therion – Leviathan

Tribulation – Where The Gloom Becomes Sound

Asphyx – Necroceros

W.E.T. – Retransmission

Labyrinth – Welcome To The Absurd Circus

TDW – The Days The Clock Stopped

Need – Norchestrion: A Song For The End

You can also check out my other reviews from previous years right here:

2020 reviews

2019 reviews
2018 reviews
2017 reviews
2016 reviews
2015 reviews

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