Now with vocals but crazy as ever
Hella had the (mis)fortune of making a fairly sizable splash in the math rock world with their debut Hold Your Horse Is. The drum/guitar duo of Spencer Seim and Zach Hill won quite a few hearts with their quirky song writing, over-the-top drumming, and dense musical ideas (despite just being a two member band at the time). I allude to the acclaim their debut received as perhaps being a bad thing because none of the albums that followed received the same amount of attention. But Hella have not remained inert in the five years since their debut—their membership has swollen with the addition of a rhythm guitarist, a bassist and a vocalist(!), and There's No 666 In Outer Space marks the beginning of a contract with Mike Patton's Ipecac label.
As someone whose pre-There's No 666 In Outer Space experience with Hella consists of only a few songs here or there, my view on Aaron Ross's vocals will probably be somewhat different than a fan's. His style of cartoon-ish ranting as well as off-the-wall lyrical themes is most similar to that of Les Claypool, although quite a few other similarities make brief appearances throughout the album. Most impressively though is that he managed to weave vocal lines amongst the music he was given to work with.
Hella's music is really something to behold—above all, it is incredibly dense. While I would also describe the music of The Mars Volta, Mr. Bungle or Primus as dense, Hella set themselves apart from those bands by making no compromises in the way of melody or cohesion. Zach Hill never even thinks of letting up on his frantic rhythmic assault (how he plays this stuff live without his arms falling off or his brain melting is beyond me), while Spencer Seim approaches his unique and unpredictable style of guitar acrobatics in much the same way. With the explosive Zach/Spencer interplay going at full force throughout the album, it's amazing that the rest of the band even manages to contribute—a welcome low end from the bass, and the extra accent to the dissonant chords from the rhythm guitar. This uncompromising approach is not without its flaws. Primus achieve their appeal by organizing their brand of chaos into thunderous, weird, bass-driven riffs; There's No 666 In Out Space never has a similarly memorable moment, as even when the band hits on a great idea it is quickly siphoned away into a new one almost instantly.
Hella are a unique and exciting band, but once the bombast that comes from playing-20-notes-where-a-normal-band-plays-one wears off (two or three songs in), the album quickly becomes tedious. A second wind comes in the form of some electronic experimentation during the second half of the album, boosting it a few points but not fully salvaging it from its former half.
| Reviewer: Jeff Mcquiggan Added: January 30th 2007 |
|
