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Havoc Unit: h.IV+ (hoarse industrial viremia)
27/10/10 || Love Lagerkvist
So the symphonic black metal-turned fucken disco metal playing Finns …and Ocean got bored with putting out mediocre PG13 music, said fuck it and proceeded to form Havoc Unit. Two years later, they released their debut album “h.IV+ (Hoarse Industrial Viremia)”, the victim of today’s audial examination.
The faint of heart beware, for it’s it not anything like the cosy disco-metal these fuckers put out on “Cypher”. Instead, we are served industrial black metal that actually lives up to the name “industrial”. Not in the way that it sounds like Einstürzende Neubauten, but rather, it feels like you are listening to some kind of really fucked up hell factory working with full effect. Remember that Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode (the first in season 3, to be specific) when Buffy feels all emo and flees Sunnydale, only to end up working in an LA diner? Yeah, you know, the one where she eventually finds a weird cult with an even weirder portal to a factory in hell powered by human slaves. Add some rape, christian hate, nuclear fallout as well as some German philosophers, and you’ve pretty much got Havoc Unit.
The majority of the music is comprised of Meshuggah-inspired rhythmical guitar- and drum chugging, with the rest being comprised of samples, unsettling lyrics “based on human perversions of the last century” and generally fucked up noises of all kinds. And would you know, it sound absolutely heavenly. Or, well, that’s probably not the most fitting adjective, but you get what I mean. The massive grooves always keeps the music flowing, and the electronic stuff does a surprisingly good job of keeping everything interesting (and really, really fucked up).
Vocal wise we are treated to jos.f’s (or Kenny, as his mom calls him) hellish rasps, with the occasional female pipes to round it all out. One could criticize mr. K for using that exact same tone in every song, but that would be missing the point of the whole concept. And besides, we get a great cameo from Solefalds Cornelius Jakhelln, providing some vocal variety for the track “Ignoratio Elenchi [Reversed Genesis]”. Productions is top notch as well, having a great balance between a distorted mess and crystal clear piss.
However, not all is gold and green AIDS-cells back in the Havocian camp, for this dose of h.IV does suffer from a few glitches, the biggest problem being the length. In total we are greeted with 54 minutes of – disregarding the haunting piano piece “Kristallnacht [From Revolution to Reconstruction]” and dark ambient “Nihil [Operation Blitzkrieg]” – non stop blackened industrial terror, which get’s a bit to fucking much after a while. Tracks like “Kyrie Eleison [Totalitarian Libertarianism]” and “Man vs. Flesh [Structured Suicide]” could’ve easily been left out, while others should have been trimmed by a minute or two.
But other than that, I fail to find more ghosts in the machine. The Nietzsche-quote in the end of When “Children Are No Longer Enough [C.oitus O.rgasm C.atholic K.ids]” sends chills down my spine every time, and let me tell y-
MECHANICAL FAULT IN //:GD…
…
…
SOLUTION ERROR; COMMENCING PROGRAM ‘TOTAL FUCKING EXTERMINATION’…
- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Vendlus
- Website: www.h-i-v.fi
- Band
- jos.f: vocals
- sa.myel: guitars, bass, drums
- t.kunz: guitars, bass
- heinr.ich: keyboards
- Tracklist
- 01. مبيد الدّيدان [Vermicide]
- 02. I. esus [The Liturgy of Inhumanity]
- 03. When Children Are No Longer Enough [C.oitus O.rgasm C.atholic K.ids]
- 04. Generation Genocide [Humanitarian Vivisection]
- 05. Viremia [Regime HIV+]
- 06. Kyrie Eleison [Totalitarian Libertarianism]
- 07. Nihil [Operation Blitzkrieg]
- 08. Man vs. Flesh [Structured Suicide]
- 09. Ignoratio Elenchi [Reversed Genesis]
- 10. Kill All Nations [The Manual of Terrorism]
- 11. Kristallnacht [From Revolution to Reconstruction]
- 12. Klan Korps [Volkssturm & Erregung]
- 13. Rape Scene Act I [The Fine Art of Quality Time]
