Aydra
Hyperlogical Non-Sense
7.7
Some people like to take their time to do the job right. Aydra is an Italian band that formed in 1985, but didn’t release a full-length album until 1999. Fourteen years is a long time, how many prolific bands’ entire careers could fit in that time span? Overkill put out 11 full-lengths from ‘85-‘99. Now Aydra did release a series of demos and an EP in that time, and I’m sure there’s a story behind it, but I have to give them credit for keeping the dream alive for that long.
After the release of Icon of Sin, they took another five years before releasing this album, Hyperlogical Non-Sense, in 2004. After all that time, you’d expect a good album, and that’s what you get here: nine songs of competent but lighthearted technical death metal, a brief instrumental, and a weird finisher that comes off like techno played with instruments. In fact, they can often sound like a group of music school metalheads just fucking around in the garage. They certainly can play, with interesting drum beats, excellent guitar work, bass that keeps along, and an energetic, raspy-throated vocalist. But, every so often their song structure sounds like a quilt made up of a pile of chopped-up riffs.
This aspect is evident partway into the first song, “Vortex of Desire”, which goes from a noodling solo, into an epic, Shadows Fall-type riff, then into a bass solo, before returning to the undulating verse riffs. Other tracks feature a noticeable Athiest influence, which is already perking up most of your ears just reading it, although Aydra aren't as vicious, even with a stellar production job. They generally maintain a fast pace throughout, although in some of the mid-paced melodic sections, I hear some John Petrucci (Dream Theater) riffs shining through. The guitar wizardry carries over to the soloing of Francesco Olivi, which redeems a couple of flat songs, like “Pulse”.
There’s no question that the boys of Aydra know what they’re doing, but a more important question is how well they are at arranging their talent into coherent songs? In many places, they succeed, such as on the rockers “Strobos” and “Mind Blast”. But at other times they get a little tedious with over-repeated riffs and general disjointedness. However, there are far more hits than misses on Hyperlogical Non-Sense, making it worth a listen for anyone who can appreciate fairly-technical and melodic death metal that is short on evil.
