### Hyperial: Sceptical vision

#### 08/07/10 || Smalley

Glancing at Hyperial’s Metal Archives page, I was momentarily excited to see that they’re Polish death metal; Vader and Decapitated are pretty good bands, so these guys can’t be too bad, right? Wrong; while album opener “Nemesis” is nothing but 2+ minutes of aimless, pretentious, Project Hate-y keyboarding and samples, it still isn’t too bad, but “Sceptical mind” shatters that illusion with its ball-less rhythm guitar sound and momentum-deficient songwriting, the latter of which is mostly due to the groove-less riffs on display here. It’s okay to be heavy, but not if you completely neglect to give your music a groove in the process, which is exactly what Hyperial did on “Sceptical vision”, and all the pretentious keyboard parts in the world can’t save their music. And a lot of the time, the music here seemed to be going way too slow as well, so that certainly didn’t help things either.

Besides the songwriting weaknesses, frontman Grochu’s growled vocals are generic to the core, and there are no real solos here, or, at least there aren’t any worth remembering, as it’s mostly about those mediocre riffs. Hyperial’s drummer is pretty decent, but his triggered drum sound is generic and lame (he really doesn’t hit the skins that fast, so he shouldn’t need the triggers, at least he shouldn’t in my uninformed, musicianship-n00b opinion).

Later on in “vision, there’s more pretentious keyboarding, some piano work, and other sound experimentations, but it still doesn’t make things interesting; it’s like Hyperial thought that just railroading in the keyboard parts into their otherwise bog-standard death metal would automatically make them a good band. Don’t let the keyboards fool ya, “Sceptical vision” is the very definition of generic, plodding, unenterprising death metal, with very little impact overall, and not even close to being worth remembering. I did enjoy hearing that little sample the band took from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but that won’t save them from mediocrity.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Psycho Records
- Website: Hyperial MySpace
- Band
- Grochu: vocals, guitar
- Kula: guitar
- Artur: bass
- Aneta Pawtel: keyboard, samples
- Kozioł: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Nemesis
- 02. Sceptical Mind
- 03. Metaphor
- 04. Insane
- 05. Carrion
- 06. Future Is Your Eternity
- 07. Armageddon
- 08. Genesis
- 09. Belly Of The Beast