Seattle’s blackened death metal outfit Hissing is back with their sophomore LP Hypervirulence Architecture, and sure enough, it’s twice as pissed, twice as claustrophobic, and twice as mind-numbing and hellishly impossible to bang your head along to.
Devoid of anything that resembles hooks, Hissing deftly displays their discordant songwriting and this time around, they aren’t afraid to introduce new instruments to the fold if it meant to further express the cacophony of their music effectively. Case in point, opener “Cells of Nonbeing” closes with an explosive saxophone bit that doesn’t sound out of place in an atramentous record such as this.
“Hostile Absurdity” places Hissing and fellow Profound Lore mates Portal on equal footing when it comes to sickening, albeit satisfying forays into blackened death metal. Album centerpiece “Operant Extinction”, the longest track, shows Hissing melding noise with their brand of suffocating songs to drive the point home that noise is the final frontier of music and they have reached it, mastered it, and wields it effectively, similar to their peers Full of Hell, Primitive Man, and Endon.
Overall, Hypervirulence Architecture is an excellent exhibition of the depths that depraved music can go, and the results always exceeding expectations of even the most snobbish metal gatekeepers.