Hacktivist "Hacktivist"

Things seem to ease up going into the end of the year, with festivals being months behind us and new releases already plopping or pending release for the fall tour season. It's tough after getting four or five albums a week for months to two consecutive weeks without uncovering anything worthy.

     I found out about Hacktivist through my interest of Heart of a Coward's back catalogue after their latest release. I was hoping to find where all the people that made their debut EP Dead Sea so promising disappeared to.

     Hacktivist finds original guitar player Timfy James doing what he does best. The sound is obviously this celestial sound landscaping, surrounded by staccato riffage, a groove element found by plucking guitar and bass strings and obviously departs from the origins of djent and what we've come to expect from HOAC releases. Think classic Tesseract, Textures, Monuments, Fellsilent and you're in the same school of thought. 

     Title track, band name, song title "Hacktivist" however finds the band emulating Bulb's "Mr. Person" so apparently obvious that I had to stop what I was doing to go reference the track. Sure enough, it's the same opening drum kick and eventual flow. Obviously Misha's solo work has made itself apparent on Periphery's work and I believe the referenced track was actually a track on Alpha - quite possibly their opening track on the album. Otherwise it's an entertaining listen and explosive sessions like what we find in "Cold Shoulders" make the sound just a joy to listen to and stop comparing it to its predecessors.

     Even though Hacktivist do what Linkin Park does with their vocals and present a schizophrenic rapping, singing, screaming sometime approach, it still delves from this particular djent school of thought. As original as this is, it's hard not to wonder what the band is really trying to accomplish. Some of the tracks are rap rock, others are epic ballads (catch "Blades" for instance). Maybe it's just expression for the hell of it or maybe they're looking to strike new ground. Either way it's hard to imagine they're just relying on their MC skills to carry them. There seems to be many more intricacies involved. 

     Regardless, it is a unique blend of nu-metal vocals and djent musicianship that works out much better than it reads on paper. Perhaps it's the complexities of good 'ol Timfy writing the majority of the work which is exemplary to say the least. 

     But as original as some of the riffs are and as explosive as the production comes off, it's really tough to review the album without listening to Bulb's greatest hits instead. Check this out for sure, then follow up on Bulb's catalogue while we wait for new Born of Osiris to drop and blow our minds next week.