Review by Daniel for Holocaust - Hypnosis of Birds (1992)

I hadn't heard the third full-length from this Scottish NWOBHM act before but this week's experience with 1992's "Hypnosis of Birds" has been unanimously positive as well as quite surprising. You see, I wasn't much of a fan of Holocaust's 1981 debut album "The Nightcomers" which is by far their most well-known release. It was a very basic, rough-&-ready heavy metal affair that's light-years away from the sophisticated progressive metal we find here. There are some hints of Holocaust's roots to be found here & there (see the first half of the opening title track or the re-recording of the band's signature piece "The Small Hours" which Metallica covered on their 1987 "Garage Days Re-Revisited" E.P.) but, for the most part, Holocaust have moved on creatively with only guitarist John Mortimer remaining from the lineup that delivered the debut. Mortimer also handles the vocals this time which are admittedly nothing special. It's the instrumentation that's the real win here with some of this material reminding me a lot of more popular progressive metal artists like Mastodon, Devin Townsend or Dream Theater. Unfortunately, there are no genuine classic of offer but the quality is consistently strong enough to make "Hypnosis of Birds" a great listen nonetheless, even if the production is a little rougher than you'd generally expect from a prog record. This is definitely my new favourite Holocaust release, over-taking the fairly underground 1980 "Heavy Metal Mania" E.P. which I quite like. And by the way, please ignore the RYM tagging which includes Avant-Garde Metal & Heavy Metal, neither of which are relevant.

For fans of Voivod, Anacrusis & The Thought Industry.