### Hyperborean: The spirit of warfare

#### 08/06/11 || cadenz

Hyperborean was created 2000 AD in Sweden. Three demos and eleven years later their debut album “The Spirit of Warfare” is released. Blunt verdict: if more than a decade of honing your songs gets you no farther than this, maybe it’s time to consider doing something else.

“The Spirit of Warfare” is filled with riffs. Lots and lots of riffs. Most could be labeled as death, black or progressive metal riffs. They could also be labeled as horribly arranged and amateurishly put together. One second Hyperborean are bursting out a fast and hectic riff with monotone blasting, the next we’re off to melodies and double kicks. The amount of smooth transitions is zero. This could possibly work if the riffs themselves were absolute monsters, but alas – they’re not. A few fleeting nicer moments emerge when Hyperborean decide to pull out the Epic Card™ and go 6/8 on our asses, but these are few and far between. There are some good riffs in there somewhere, but the horrible arrangements and production quench all of their potential. Next time A) skip all the riffs that don’t make your dick rise in a heartbeat, B) try to squeeze every drop of juice out of every riff by testing different arrangements on them, and most importantly C) consider what’s best for the song as a whole, and don’t stuff it full with every riff in the universe. Quality control is key.

Let’s talk about the production. The record sounds stale, plastic, flat and void of any atmosphere whatsoever. Everything is super-compressed and sounds like shit, especially the guitars and drums. The half-growl, half-shriek vocal delivery is far below par, and though the other instrumentalists seem to know roughly what they’re doing, that doesn’t help one bit when the soundscape and arrangements are crap. The guitar leads could’ve used some more work as well.

“The Spirit of Warfare” sounds like a demo from 2001, filled with melodic “extreme” metal with progressive tendencies. No death. No black. By the turn of the millennium the scene of extreme metal got infested with millions of bands and albums like this. I had hoped that quality control would have driven the plague to extinction, but obviously one germ slunk through a wormhole somewhere. We need a cure. No – we demand a cure! NOW!

- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Abyss Records
- Website: www.hyperborean.nu
- Band
- Magnus Persson: vocals
- Andreas Blomqvist: guitars
- Max Lindberg: bass
- Fredrik Widigs: drums (session)

- Tracklist
- 01. Channeling the Spirit of Warfare
- 02. Weapon Mankind
- 03. Viper
- 04. The Last Stand of Leonidas and the Battle of Thermopylae
- 05. A New Sun Rises
- 06. Killing Grounds
- 07. The Sick Man of Europe