Even a sustained period of online digging won’t reveal much about Hecatombe, the Lyon based filth merchants seeming about as box-fresh as a band get. However, with a sound so demonstratively in debt to early/mid-period Entombed, the punk fuelled extremity of their debut full length is anything but new, even if it does transmit all the timeless joys of that classic Swede-death formula.
Having said this, it would certainly be unfair to dismiss Hecatombe as a another conveyor belt clone, and looking beyond the textbook HM-2 buzzsaw bluster there are glimpses of diversity throughout the records fleeting run-time (just shy of twenty minutes to be more precise). Indeed, the band at times hit such breakneck tempos that they threaten to morph into crossover thrash (‘Anti Anti’), whereas ‘Parasite City’ and ‘Black Bile’ manage to conjurer a faintly blast-ridden, black metal atmosphere, and the rampaging grooves of opener ‘Wormdance’ fully harness the destructive power of hardcore punk. It’s belligerent, it’s snotty, it’s more than a tad goofy (just check out the song titles – ‘Life Is Too Short To Play Doom’ anyone?) and whilst it will hardly set the world alight, Hecatombe is kinda fun while it lasts
Hecatombe is available via Breathe Plastic Records and can be purchased here and here.
Words: Tony Bliss
