Review: Hippotraktor ‘Stasis’
Having moved down to this corner of the South West I spent some time putting on gigs with a friend who shares a love of metal and whilst our foray into providing cheap entertainment that would hopefully raise the profile of kick-ass underground music was short-lived, he remains someone whose musical opinion I respect. When talking to him a few years back, I was name-dropping bands he would enjoy that I had been reviewing and he counted with Belgium’s Hippotraktor, to which my less than cultured reply was ‘Hippo-what?’.
Granted, this was before I’d spent countless hours digesting the myriad offerings from the Pelagic Records roster for whom the band would make their full-length debut with 2021’s Meridian, an album that hit like the heavyweight Gojira, slammed with vertigo-inducing dent drops like Meshuggah and soared with the technical melodies of Crack The Skye era Mastodon. This high-brow, chunky prog/post-metal was charged with atmospheric shifts and allegorical lyrics that sort to boldly set the band at the forefront of the modern metal movement, providing a Venn diagram for those craving hardcore brutality, progressive space rock and clean pop-inflected, catchiness.
Following Meridian’s release, Hippotraktor have sought to refine the grooves and chops that allowed them to make such a striking impression. The new album Stasis sees the five-piece of producer, songwriter and guitarist Chiaran Verheyden, bassist Jakob Fiszer, drummer Lander De Nyn, guitarist/vocalist Sander Rom and percussionist/vocalist Stefan De Graef attempt to explore concepts of humanity and philosophy with powerful, anthemic and emotive turbulence that raises the bar for the European post-progressive movement.
Descent immediately sets out their stall as it explodes into a stab of swirling synth, djent-like staccato grooves and syncopated rhythms that bristle with violence. Technically tighter than the lid on a newly purchased jar of pickles, the track feels like a field recording from a future sci-fi war. De Graef’s vocals roar with gruff determination against the clashing power before evolving into lush, multi-layered melodies that contrast with the cacophony around them. Working through quiet/loud dynamics, the tension never settles and Hippotraktor throws the kitchen sink at you; from whispers to clean harmonies and roaring savagery in the blink of an eye, they switch up the delivery in a breathtakingly effortless manner. Lyrically the concept contrasts the tenderness of the world with the daily horror, musing on the ‘physical, ethereal’.
Following up with the swaying Echoes, the vocals are front and centre in the emotional journey with the passionate, earnest yearning delivery. The hard switches between the rasping, pummelling polyrhythms and the teasing, otherworldly airiness give way to a cycling, chugging middle section that features teasing guitar notes that slow the pace and allows you to sit back and take in the sheer amount of things going on.
The stamp of De Lyn’s drums and the ringing guitar notes of Verhevden and Rom usher in a lush intro to Silver Tongue. Over this soothing start, the twin vocals of De Graef and Rom glide majestically until the heavy, angular riffing kicks in. In a pattern reminiscent of label mates The Ocean, the cathartic build and release of the juxtaposition between the walls of power like a crashing tsunami and the delicate moments of introspection, throw the listener back and forth as the savage breakdowns meet dreamy melodies.
the walls of power like a crashing tsunami and the delicate moments of introspection, throw the listener back and forth as the savage breakdowns meet dreamy melodies…
Renegade continues similarly with the robust chugging over the almost tribal beats of the drums and the tense edgy guitar work. The isolated creeping notes give way to a full-on assault before the Robin Staps style crooning that brings heightened contrasts between the melody and the bass-heavy verses. Lyrically the themes of questioning continue over electronic sprinklings of dancing, bright noises as the track builds to a climax with discombobulating string bends from Fiszer.
The band borrow from Lateralus era Tool on The Indifferent Human Eye with the creeping opening where quiet prog and pattering toms pace out a moody slower passage before the inevitable shift into the epic bombast they have perfected on the earlier tracks.
The title track, Stasis, follows with more synth and a heavy groove, the grinding verses give way to frantically picked lulls with percussive stick effects over the delicate melodies. The gnarly breakdowns and raging screams drag the listener into the monstrously heavy sections with the bounce that the best of the nu metal era was capable of summoning, making the track hook you in for when they take you on a jazz-style guitar run. It proves the band are self-aware enough to know that simple light to dark contrasts alone aren’t going to satisfy fans of intricate melodies and riffs as heavy as semiaquatic mammals (or indeed engineering vehicles).
Final track The Reckoning feels more organic than the preceding ones with the mellow guitar with fingers scratching across the strings drawing you in. As Hippotraktor opt for the slow burn to finish in dramatic style, the tribal drumming backs breathy vocals that lend another dream-like feel to the end of the album. Simply the most beautiful piece on Stasis, the despairing lines like ‘I’ve never been this much nothing’ hit hard in isolation, even before they let go and crash in with the full array of instruments and rasping screams.
The band’s talents are blatantly obvious (especially to fans of their other projects which include Pothamus and Psychonaut), but here they opt for a less zen-like thematic approach and deliver frustration, hope and searching content matching the complexity of the maelstrom around them which would see the band translate well to fans of Haken and Periphery.
My slight personal detachment to some of the more technical bands in the post-metal scene is that to execute these highly complex tracks they need to be so well constructed and are stylistically given a gloss and a sheen that can make the experience feel slightly clinical and soulless. On Stasis, Hippotraktor have managed to escape this trap, creating an album that connects on a deeper level.
Label: Pelagic Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Mark Hunt-Bryden
