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Suicide Fixation (2004)
It is no secret that I am not terribly fond of most modern music, so
there are times when friends or acquaintances must repeatedly push something for me to give it a chance. Such was the case
with the Swedish band Hypothermia. After avoiding it for some time, I finally checked out the 2004 demo, Suicide Fixation,
which is entirely bland and worthless.
Hypothermia suffers from the same fallacies that plague most bands in
this so-called "Depressive Black Metal" movement. The songwriting is mundane and talentless, droning on with no atmosphere
whatsoever, consisting of slow-paced drums and some of the most boring and useless tremolo riffs ever created. While the pacing
of earlier bands is copied, the subtle intricacies that actually created some sort of feeling are totally lost on such charlatans.
Even worse than the below-average guitar melodies are the hilarious and
laughable vocals, which are far too high in the mix. The vocal performance is easily the worst part of this atrocious demo.
Mr. Carlsson must not have yet hit puberty when he recorded this in his bedroom, as the screams are just pathetic and sound
like a little girl that has fallen from her bike and scraped her knees. The majority of the time when people attempt to imitate
the style of vocals used on the early Burzum albums, they fail horribly and Hypothermia is no exception.
Hypothermia is yet another in a long line of useless projects that fail
to provide anything of merit. There is nothing depressing about Suicide Fixation, other than the fact that some people
are clueless enough to think that it is worth listening to while more deserving bands languish in obscurity.
(15 Apr. 2012)
Released in September 2006, Veins is the first full-length album
from Hypothermia. Hailing from Sweden, this band is another of the countless entities that claim to make 'Depressive Black
Metal', a sub-genre that mostly consists of pointless trash and posturing. Like many things in this empty modern age, it seems
to be more about image than substance.
The first thing that one may notice is the extremely pitiful and preposterous
vocal performance by Kim Carlsson. From the beginning of the first track, it appeared that he would be more restrained and
at least hold some of his effeminate screams in, but he unleashes many pointless and farcical little squeals, later on. It
is as if most fans of early Burzum that go on to make their own music were half-deaf and just heard shrill screaming from
Count Grishnackh, whereas his voice actually possessed a raw and primal feeling, a true sincerity that is lacking in almost
everyone that attempts this style. Even Landfermann's over-the-top vocals, on Bethlehem's Dictius Te Necare, had some
sort of feeling. However, Hypothermia is content just existing as some sort of parody. Carlsson's voice sounds like a nine-year
old girl that is afraid of a spider.
Beyond roaring in laughter at the horrible vocals, there is not much
to keep one's attention. The music is immensely boring and accomplishes nothing. The melodies are lifeless and convey no sort
of feeling, whatsoever. The songs don't build toward anything, nor do they take the listener on a journey. It's all just background
noise, and quite poor at that. After a slew of demos, somehow, these guys thought that this material was worthy of recording
for their debut full-length, their first real impression upon the music world. Yet what they have offered is more audio rubbish
that is just as tedious and uninteresting as before. The only value that this monotonous filth could have would be to put
people to sleep, that is, if the vocalist would stop crying over the end of his three-week relationship from ninth grade.
Hypothermia is a complete waste of time, more of a joke band than anything
else. How this project has any followers is beyond me, as it is wholly without merit. People like this probably got attracted
to the general aesthetic of Black Metal and thought it was a nice little club to join, since they felt misunderstood and lonely,
deciding to imitate it for one reason or another. The title of track two says it all, this is definitely a "failure". There
is absolutely nothing dark or depressing about this horrid little album. Avoid this and listen to early Burzum,
Strid and Mütiilation, instead.
(3 July 2015)
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