Hiroshima Will Burn
To The Weight Of All Things
5.4
Hiroshima Will Burn had some pretty good momentum going for them this year before their abrupt breakup a short while ago, but despite the unfortunate circumstances, I think everyone will survive just fine if given enough time. The music on To The Weight Of All Things, however, is a mixed bag of eye-rolling technical wankery, blast/breakdown paint-by-numbers deathcore, and some genuinely promising moments of wicked riffing that makes me wonder why they felt the need to almost ruin everything with endless, pointless noodling. I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard so many arpeggios. They managed to sound at least a little less bouncy than Gorod (unless you're into that sort of thing, which is fine), but they still fall into whiddly-wonk that borders on comedic at times.
On the more positive side, “Laberinto” is an occasionally stunning little instrumental that makes for a refreshing quick break from the technical onslaught the majority of the album provides, but even then HWB manages to throw in just enough wankery to push things nearly into overkill. Their main concern just seemed to be all about the fingers, and not about the brain, heart, or soul, and that kinda' sucks considering they laid down some pretty damaging riffs along with some brilliant drumming here and there ("Defilement", "Ad Pondus Omnium", and "Methodical Disfigurement").
There are only so many things that can be said about this ridiculously young, and immensely talented Australian band that hasn’t already been said countless times about The Faceless, Psycroptic, or any other technically overachieving outfit you can name off the top off your head. The songwriting, if it exists at all, gets lost in a sea of scales and other physically contorting displays of limb/phalangeal dexterity, surrounded by various typical grunts, roars, and screams. There’s too much going on that borders on being a hot mess, but there was also so much promise to be heard it’s not even funny. So it wouldn’t surprise me to find out the former members of Hiroshima Will Burn are already hard at work on new projects, since this isn’t talent that should go to waste by any means, but I just hope whatever their new projects are, will deliver something of more palpable substance than this admittedly excellently executed showoff road to nowhere. A little more meat, and a lot less spicy breading, please.
