{"id":73213,"date":"2018-09-13T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T00:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=73213"},"modified":"2018-10-07T20:17:50","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T20:17:50","slug":"album-review-hessian-mercenary-retrograde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-hessian-mercenary-retrograde\/","title":{"rendered":"HESSIAN – Mercenary Retrograde (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

HESSIAN
Mercenary Retrograde<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nUrtod Void (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Looking like some dust-covered and long lost gem of the mid-80s, Hessian\u2019s sophomore outing comes loping out of the bejeweled kingdom of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal-styled madness with an interesting vocal approach and slightly unorthodox structures.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s these details which leave me scratching my head, unsure as to where I sit with the dramatic croons which come with a sort of early 80s Goth\u2019 meets doomy essence of drama. This is especially evident on opener \u2018I Wish I Was Dead\u2019, which has a peculiar feel throughout as the combo \u2013 with rather tepid notion, but hints of grace and steel \u2013 maneuvers with intriguing yet all to slow fashions.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always that strong odor of medieval metal about Mercenary Retrograde<\/em> \u2013 the guitars exuding a smoky blackness \u2013 and yet which somehow leave me aching for more pace. But as Angus McFarland bemoans \u201cI wish I was dead\u201d<\/em>, I can\u2019t help but let out a giggle.<\/p>\n

\u2018Skull Ring\u2019 harkens back to an early Iron Maiden chime, that classic cold steel gallop is as basic as it gets and those warbling vocalizations seem to take the fizz out of any sting applied by the percussive trundle and those nifty yet familiar riffs and leads. It\u2019s good, musty metal with a thick castle stench about its stark bass-lines and murky riffs which chug nicely.<\/p>\n

With track titles such as \u2018Leg Puller\u2019 and \u2018Dude Messiah\u2019, and at times some bizarre instrumentations (check out the jazzy, lounge vibe of \u2018Skull Ring\u2019s\u2019 latter stages which brings to mind Thin Lizzy too), there\u2019s some interesting angles provided here and you never know what\u2019s coming next. I\u2019m surprised then to find out these guys are from Portland, Maine and not some obscure European abode nestled somewhere amongst the mountains of dooooom!<\/p>\n

\u2018Leg Puller\u2019 is a straight up edgy rocker with odd, punky tones, especially in the vocal, while \u2018St. Leopold\u2019 expresses itself like some Goth-cum-new wave 80s trickle of strangeness complete with effective organ and nice lead work, and there\u2019s no doubting McFarland\u2019s storytelling talents as he speaks of a \u201cblack velvet sky\u201d. Meanwhile, the deep, black doomy chug of \u2018The Viper\u2019 is infectious and odd.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also no real shock then that we get a cover of The New Order\u2019s \u2018Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Soldiers\u2019, bolstered magically by Greg Souza\u2019s percussion and the bass work of \u2018Michael Pearce. But it just keeps the unusual stylings going; Hessian clearly operating in some separate universe whereby NWOBHM designs successfully flirt with punky, Goth and long-archived and forgotten David Byrne (Talking Heads) rambles up front.<\/p>\n

Yes, Hessian is a strange brew indeed and their new effort is one that may alienate a few, but I for one find such expressions engaging.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HESSIANMercenary Retrograde Urtod Void (2018)Rating: 7\/10 Looking like some dust-covered and long lost gem of the mid-80s, Hessian\u2019s sophomore outing comes loping out of the bejeweled kingdom of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal-styled madness with an interesting vocal approach and slightly unorthodox structures. And it\u2019s these details which leave me scratching my head, unsure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-hessian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73214,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73213\/revisions\/73214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}