Hexrot enters through the front door.
Spotted by Indian label Transcending Obscurity Records following their very first demo, the band formed by Arkain (guitar/bass/vocals) and Melmoth (drums/vocals) unveils its first album, Formless Ruin of Oblivion, in 2025.
The duo lulls us with the opening moments of What Lies Veiled, but tranquility is quickly disturbed by growls and the band’s first jerky riffs, which significantly darken the atmosphere. What seemed to be a martial approach quickly turns into controlled chaos with multiple facets ranging from raw violence to dissonance at various speeds before naturally transitioning to Heavenward, where we find that same disorganized but controlled touch. The track also offers a kind of respite on the guitar with a vocal sample, but the torrents of saturated complexity resurface accompanied by roars while revealing hypnotic harmonics. However, the atmosphere changes again when Consecrating Luminous Conflagration takes over and becomes more aggressive. The screams follow one another and respond to each other constantly, leaving the instrumental to hammer us with its changing rhythm, but the combo finally decides to offer us a moment of respite with some disturbing effects on Ghostly Retrograde I, the first instrumental break. It only lasts a minute, but it is a welcome respite before the return of violence on Clandestine Haunt, which clearly has no intention of going easy on us and hits us with full force from the very first seconds, but which will eventually run out of steam and slow down again to let us reach Ghostly Retrograde II, the second and last moment of respite. Here too, vocals have no place, with the band preferring noise elements that become almost soothing towards the end, leading to the pachydermic Formless Ruin of Oblivion, the last composition lasting more than fifteen minutes, which starts off fairly gently while maintaining its heavy atmosphere before gradually flooding us with its dissonance coupled with a furious and explosive basis, despite a few moments that are less torn than those where creative madness speaks for the musicians, before a finale that is, to say the least, distressing.
If you like ambitious but crazy projects, Hexrot should be part of your next listening session. Despite a few breaks, Formless Ruin of Oblivion doesn’t give us a moment’s respite and showers us with rich and complex sounds from start to finish.
80/100
