Hagzissa – They Ride Along (Real Specter Metal)
Occasionally a band like this just totally nails the spook thing. It’s October, I’m late on reviewing this and disgusted at myself, it’s cold only part of the day, and there are fake ghosts about so I need to fully feel the spook. It’s a hard angle to play, though, there’s a balance between serious and goofy so to be genuinely frightening while making your audience smile is a chore. The usual result is one-night, open-mic bar punk about zombies, or metal bands with bad names; the atypical, underground result is something like Hagzissa if you’re lucky. Today you’re lucky because this is Hagzissa.
Their demo was not well-received, and having listened to it I would bet that’s primarily due to the production quality and nothing else. It’s clear as soon as you scope the artwork by the unknown Void A.D. that Hagzissa’s They Ride Along is going to be something else, something their demo only whispered but hid too deeply within cult production. Here they open their cloaks from within the fog and live a little. They Ride Along is threatening yet somehow pleasant, the perfect background to a drive in the dark without the lights on, a kiss below the lips in a moldy basement, or a dark ritual where you sacrifice candy as children cry. I’d release this on cassette myself if these guys would read their messages for the love of God, but this is prime spooking month so they’re probably stalking.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Hagzissa – They Ride Along
Iron Bonehead Productions
4.5 / 5
