Horfixion
Self Inflicted Hell
6.3
Since 1993, Quebec's Horfixion have persevered throughout all these years. Releasing a demo, an ep, and two full lengths, Self Inflicted Hell is their first release on Galy Records, a label which has also put out material by such bands as Anhkrehg, Neuraxis, and Martyr. After initially losing their drummer, Patrice Hamelin who performed on Instigators of Chaos, it seems he's back for another round with the band.
Here's Horfixion in a nutshell - choppy thrash riffs, the occasional Death influenced guitar, prominent bass tone, and half-sung/yelled Tom Araya vocals, right on down to the delivery. While the title track has somewhat of a Gothenburg melody, the choruses are just sort of a slower break, it's not exactly soaked in originality, and that's where I feel the band really suffers. They're still sort of playing a style that should've died out in around 1998. The solo work, despite the its brevity on "Insane Poetry" really lends itself to break up some of the monotonous structure of the tune and sounds almost like it could've been lifted from a Cryptopsy song. Sadly though, the short solo isn't enough to bring anticipation what's to come on their fourth track, "Twisted Inner Mind", although it does utilize some artificial harmonics and reminds me of some of the better and more innovative thrash acts of the late 80's/early 90's. Not bad at all. However, if all of their songs could be as innovative as "Deconstructing My Life", this album would be excellent. Starting with a standard black metal full-chord strumming, the song manifests itself into a dissonant thrash moves to a jagged squeeling riff. The track drags on slightly, but it's well written and certainly the most interesting composition on the album.
I don't know if it's the thin production or what, but there's something about Self Inflicted Hell that makes it really difficult to get into. It sounds fine - and that's part of the problem. It's far too middle of the road. If they had a beefed up, more modernized sound, they might have something great on their hands. In any case, it's not going to be contending for album of the year, but it's certainly not without high points, especially when the album picks up in the middle.
