Artist: HELLHUMM
Release: Random Damage Industry (2015)
Genre: Dark electro, EBM, dark pop
Five years ago, HELLHUMM, a project created by Sergio Torroba, Ignacio Ysasi and Javier Calvo, pleased us with their first album, Random Damage Industry. From the first time listening to it, this masterpiece seemed ideal to start the year 2020 with style, and for a good reason: HELLHUMM brilliantly mixes its EBM, industrial, synthpop and dark pop influences.
From the beginning of the album, we find dark electro/dark pop with “Scramble”, whose fascinating melody and haunting rhythm will remain in your head. Listening to “No Dawn”, you will feel like you are listening to a Depeche Mode concert. In “Too Late”, the group flirts with both EBM and dark pop: one of the strongest points of this song is undoubtedly the magnificent and loaded with emotion piano intro, an instrument that will be found later in “Feeling Fader”, in an equally melancholic melody. “Flesh on the Table” presents dark electro rhythms reminiscent of Cabaret Nocturne.
It is with a certain nostalgia that we discover or rediscover the group’s old school EBM rhythms, as in “Modesty”, where different cadences alternate, or “Bitter Bliss”, whose synth sounds recall the great And One. “Gravity (restraint)” will take you on a journey into space where powerful resonant bass will accompany you, making you feel like you are in outer space.
“Hate to Hate” will please industrial music lovers with its marked influences and guitar riffs. “Scum,” a true dark electro instrumental hit, where only “fuck you” are heard, closes the album.
In this album, two elements should be highlighted: Ignacio’s magnificent deep tone of voice recalls many times that of Gary Numan, which, uncompromisingly, conveys the emotions of the music, and also “Hounds”, the third song of the album. Listening to it, you can easily imagine yourself piloting a spaceship in the Galaxian game series, while firing laser shots at alien ships. The catchy rhythm and the melody make this song unforgettable. Did the group invent the extraterrestrial dark electro pop? In any case, one thing is for sure: we hope that soon, the group will surprise us with a new album.
Proofreading: Joanne Gagnon
Points of sale
Facebook of the band (signed copy)
