Review by Daniel for Hemotoxin - When Time Becomes Loss (2024)
Seriously, how much do I love it when I stumble upon a band that makes me stand up & pay attention, leaving me wondering why in the actual fuck I'd never heard of them before, & that's exactly what Pittsburg's Hemotoxin have managed to accomplish with their brand new fourth album "When Time Becomes Loss". It seems almost unbelievable to me that this artist has released three largely unheralded full-lengths & an E.P. prior to this record as it's honestly one of the best examples of its type that I've had the pleasure of hearing.
Surprisingly given the complexity & sophistication of the music on offer, Hemotoxin is essentially the work of one man in Condition Critical/Ripped To Shreds guitarist Michael Chavez who delivers the vocals, bass & most of the guitars on "When Time Becomes Loss". This wasn't always the case & it would appear that Hemotoxin were more of a band leading up to this release but something has gone awry along the way & Hemotoxin appears to have been left in the hands of Chavez. Here we see him enlisting the services of lead guitarists Tony Barhoum (Condition Critical), Andrew Lee (Azath/Draghkar/Houkago Grind Time/Ripped to Shreds/Skullsmasher) & Donnie Small (Laceration) as well as the superb drumming skills of Scott Fuller (Abysmal Dawn/Havok/Morbid Angel/Sentinel Beast) to produce an incredibly ambitious record of a consistently high quality.
The production job of Andrew Lee is more than appropriate to showcase the skills of the participants who obviously possess a deep pedigree in a wide range of extreme metal. The class in the musicianship & execution is phenomenal with Hemotoxin's sound drawing together the technical death metal, technical thrash metal & progressive metal genres & reiterating them in a fashion that leaves the listener with no choice but to be impressed. Chavez' vocals delivery sits somewhere between the raspy modern-day tech thrash sound of bands like Vektor & the classic death metal growl of Death's Chuck Schuldiner, often borrowing from Chuck fairly closely in his articulation & phrasing. The same can be said for the music actually as Death's more progressive later releases would appear to be Hemotoxin's primary influence here along with other early 90's bands like Cynic & Atheist. There's a clear thrash metal component to this material though which brings to mind bands like Miscreance & Revocation who manage to harness both the tech death & tech thrash sounds in equal measure. That's a pretty good way to summarize the first half of the record actually but the second half sees things getting more progressive with the ear-catching melodic guitar solos drawing upon jazz fusion at times & the soundcapes being more lush & expansive.
The guitar & bass interplay is dazzling at times & it's probably not all that surprising that this record was largely the creation of one man when you take that into account. But then, the contributions of the other participants seem to be so significant & also fit like a glove so it's hard to imagine how the music was put together in this fashion. The drumming of Scott Fuller is a prime example as it's the clear highlight of the album for me personally. Some of you may know him as the skinsman from Morbid Angel's 2017 "Kingdoms Disdained" album but his blast-beats are utterly sublime here, so much so that I could listen to the whole record just for that element alone. The clear highlight track "Reborn in Tragedy" is the most obvious example of that as Fuller almost single-handedly takes a really solid set of musical ideas & absolutely slays over them to create what is nothing short of a progressive death/thrash classic as far as I'm concerned. The rest of the material may not come close to reaching those lofty heights but all six remaining tracks are very solid, high-quality extreme metal tunes displaying a clear focus & understanding of the various subgenres of metal they're harnessing.
Honestly, I've rarely heard a better tech thrash record than this one & it doesn't do too badly when placed alongside the stronger tech death & progressive metal releases out there either. Perhaps some of the material is a little more melodic & unashamedly technical than I would usually go for but I can't deny the class with which it's been produced. How Hemotoxin have managed to sneak under my radar for the last twelve years is baffling to say the least & I thank Vinny for finally rectifying that glaring omission with this month's outstanding feature release nomination.
For fans of Hexen, Miscreance & 90's Death.