Show me the way to the eye of the tornado…
This one has been a real challenge. It’s not only the music itself – it’s sitting down with something that is so far away from my usual metal dabbling, wrapping my head around a pretty wild, pretty annoying, and frankly also quite impressive record. The Hypercosmic Paradox does indeed feel like it’s some kind of hyperactivity booster, with flamboyant, intricate leads and solos hovering around every corner, chasing you and piercing your eardrums with surgical precision. They are clearly the central element throughout the record’s running time, and you will have to get used to them being the focus in just about every moment. Rhythm guitars and bass aren’t nearly as developed as the stunning technicalities of the main attraction, and while competently played as well, often lack any major hooks or other focal points to warrant deeper examination.
The rather alien feel of the music is only supported through the use of a drum machine that doesn’t even want to pretend that it’s human. While this is fair game for the sci-fi laden theme running through this album, the abrasiveness of the 300-ish BPM kick drums (is that even the correct term for this supersonic sludge-fest?) with the accompanying artificial snare blasts atop the madness is a little too much for someone who likes his fake drums a fair bit more subdued; who’d rather have them properly mixed into the background ether so people tend to forget about the robotic assistant in the corner of the room, especially if the bands can’t mask its imperfections well enough. But no, this kit here acts like a freight train crashing through the building or a twitchy Jet Li wushu-ing through villains in some late ’90s Hong Kong flick with budget constraints.
…and yet, there is something admirable about the result, and it’s not the perfectly adequate but still a bit stock-sounding melo-death bark of the reluctantly used guest vocalist on some of the material. It is also not due to the somewhat awkwardly placed space-synth piece at the end of a rather bursting, explosive final track, which could have been scrapped altogether, and still a fitting finale would have remained intact…
No. It’s the short moments of Kraftwerk-esque electronics – properly dusted off and blended with the swirling Guitar Hero-controller-breaking whirlwind of the technical powerplay – alongside an almost homeopathic use of moodier, slow-burning melodic licks that do the trick, as they give the best moments of the album some much-needed restraint and let the stronger compositions breathe, unfold and impress – giving time to actually process what’s been happening in that last tornado of rapid Wushu side kicks and acrobatics.
It would be a blatant lie to tell you that I will be returning to this wicked piece in any periodic fashion, since the cacophony presented within manages to blow my fuses even after its pretty concise length (sub-35 mins). But it would be a big mistake to write this off as a hyperactive trainwreck too, as there’s certainly a target audience for this kinda thing, and the sheer quality of the musicianship at hand cannot be understated. Yet if you are actually part of that illustrious group, be aware that songwriting is not the foothold of The Hypercosmic Paradox – it’s the little sparks of genius that erupt from a pool of hyperactive ideas, fired at you like the explosion effects in a Michael Bay production, which ultimately leads to a positive verdict, even though it’s one you have to earn.
https://www.facebook.com/chaosovercosmos
60/100
Total Score
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