Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Hexis - Aeternum (2022)

Following my review of KEN mode this past week I found myself seeking something for the weekend that would continue those hardcore vibes but have the necessary edge to represent the plunging temperatures that mark the end of summer here in the UK. Enter Danish boys Hexis and their full-length from last year with their thumping rhythms and blackened aesthetic perfectly scratching that itch.

Aeternum is the band’s third full-length release (there’s a multitude of splits and EPs littered throughout their discography of the past eleven years or so) and is a harsh and bruising affair that goes straight for the jugular in the main. It is in your face from the get-go and retains that consistent threat for all the forty-five-minute run time. Yet there is a knack for the longer tracks stealing the show here that leaves more of a lasting impression on me. Exhaurire, at over seven minutes is a personal highlight for me. Expansive and divisive in equal measure the bass drop at four minutes in and the ethereal, female vocals that close out the track both come out of nowhere to catch me off guard.

You cannot deny the true power of Hexis when they are at full tilt though. With slamming rhythms and swarming riffs, they batter and disorientate at the same time. Bearing the brunt of this relentless attack is a taxing experience yet one I found myself rearing up and looking for more of. The subtle tempo changes aid the experience, and the track ordering gives the album a genius level of arrangement ability. Tempering the length of Exhaurire by dropping two tracks immediately after it that are under one-minute-thirty-seconds, eases the listener into the second half of the album as the track lengths start to creep back up again.

Possessing a morbid choral atmosphere at times, the album continues to contort like the serpent on the cross on the album artwork. Aeternum is a writhing experience that carries with it an air of unbearable discomfort that leads to this convulsive performance. I get the genuine sense that the three longer tracks on here are all geysers that vent the overall fury of the shorter tracks as they build between these lengthier passages. The focus in the doomy riff that opens Vulnera (my album highlight) is intense and captivating, dragging the track into life via some abysmally slow death march.  The instrumental and largely ambient title and closing track is just about the only real let up on the whole record.

Otherwise Aeternum simply spews forth at the listener with a tsunami of nihilistic hatred for Christianity that makes no apology for never relenting (although it does on occasion at least temper) on the intensity of their message. Music to stick your chest out to and wear your metal medals with pride for all to see.