HYPERIA
“The Serpent’s Cycle”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Hyperia are a thrash metal band from Canada formed in 2018, releasing their debut E.P. ‘Fresh Creek Frenzy’ in 2019. The band have released three full length albums to date – ‘Insanitorium’ (2020), ‘Silhouettes Of Horror’ (2022), and ‘The Serpent’s Cycle’ emerging in 2023…

…featuring ten songs across a ferocious forty five minutes! Hailing from the country that gave the world some of the greatest metal and rock bands ever – Razor, Exciter, Annihilator, Lee Aaron and the mighty Rush to name just a few, Hyperia bring fast paced, aggressive and in your face thrash to the fore, pummelling listeners with a sonic array of all out savagery! The band, led from the front by the wailing vocals of lead singer Marlee Ryley, are a high velocity tidal wave after wave of bone snapping neck breaking skull crushing thrash – ‘Ego Trip’ floating in on the crest of a mellow yet anticipation fuelled, crescendo building first minute, the song shredding into life along with an almighty guttural howl from Ryley! The Canadian five piece are fast and fierce here, ‘Ego Trip’ roaring down the expressway at high speed!

And after such a speedy opener, Hyperia keep the pedal firmly pressed to the metal, ‘Automatic Thrash Machine’ entering the fray with all the attitude of a tropical cyclone – battering listeners with a ferocity laden sonic assault! The opening double salvo has been electrifying, the band delivering the kind of thrash to test even the most diehard of head bangers – best warm up those neck muscles, this is looking like it’s gonna be one helluva workout! And without dropping a beat, Hyperia storm on with the feisty ‘Prophet Of Deceit’, cutting a savage path across the land as it hits hard – very hard! The band are taking no prisoners here, slamming every listener to the floor with immense force – diehard thrashers immediately rising, ready to be slammed again and again! What a brutal onslaught, a quite breath taking barrage of aggression, exactly my kinda thrash. Kudos Hyperia, kudos. And with the aggression level at an all time high, ‘The Serpent’s Cycle’ roars on with ‘Psychosomatic’ – the accelerator pedal pressed firmly to the floor. Is there no limit to the amount of aggression, brutality and savagery the album has to offer? It would appear not, the levels all rocketing to new heights with every song that passes by!

And with more thunder than any song heard so far, the title song ‘The Serpent’s Cycle’ is a ferocious speedfest – the band travelling faster than speed of light to deliver a fast and furious bout of head bang ability. And head bang you will, ’cause the thrash on offer is incredibly head bang-able – my head hasn’t stopped rocking back and forth since the album began! And it’s unlikely to stop any time soon, the band storming on with the rumbling ‘Trapped In Time’. And when I say rumbling – I mean the kind of rumbling you hear from a freight train! Except, in the case of ‘Trapped In Time’, the freight train is travelling at over a hundred miles an hour, stopping for nothing and no-one. Just like this album then – Hyperia are an unstoppable force of nature with an abundance of electrifying energy! Energy that simply doesn’t die – ‘Spirit Bandit’ maintaining the ferocious pace and intensity of the album! And an even more aggressive array of howls and scowls from Ryley – her vocals like thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening!

And for the first time since the album began, the band sideline high speed in favour of a more traditional heavy metal pace, ‘Eye For An Eye’ bringing to the fore a blend of foot stomping thrash and doom heavy Black Sabbath – for the first two minutes anyway! And then all hell breaks fucking loose, ‘Eye For An Eye’ rocketing to high velocity, smashing through the sound barrier, wreaking havoc worldwide and sending every mosh pit into overdrive! What a song of two very different halves – ‘Binge & Surge’ maintaining the albums overall outstanding ferocity and pace! ‘The Serpent’s Cycle’ (the album) has been electrifying, exhilarating and thrilling, defying every single law of speed and motion – Hyperia performing at hyperdrive! And I don’t mean the science-fiction “propulsion system for travelling in hyperspace” definition, I mean the “fast and frantic activity” definition – with the “activity”, delivering thrash metal, and the “fast and frantic”, well, I think that speaks for itself! Bringing a barnstorming album to a close, ‘Deathbringer’ is a ferocious finale, Ryley howling and scowling with an insane amount of aggression! And that my friends is the album in a nutshell – an aggressive and ferocity laden thrash metal album comparable to the likes of Havok, Municipal Waste, the Big 4 and the Teutonic Four.

Overall, a fast paced barrage of head bang ability from a band with limitless levels of energy and savage aggression.

TRACKLIST

Ego Trip
Automatic Thrash Machine
Prophet of Deceit
Psychosomatic
The Serpent’s Cycle
Trapped in Time
Spirit Bandit
Eye for an Eye
Binge & Surge
Deathbringer

https://hyperiametal.bandcamp.com/album/the-serpents-cycle
https://www.facebook.com/Hyperiabandofficial/

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