It’s incredible to think that Ouroboros, the new album from Hieroglyph, is only the band’s debut album because it’s a very developed piece that is coherent and well-constructed, and sounds more like a release from a band that has several full-lengths under their belt!
The vocal performance from both singers is particularly strong, and what’s good is how varied it is. There’s clean female vocals, harsh male vocals and clean male vocals – and all three elements of their sound slots in nicely into the album, no matter what approach the instrumentalists take. There’s gloriously technical sections, more chugging ‘hardcore’ sections and even a bit of electronica for good measure, and rather than the album simply sounding like a haphazard arrangement of different ideas and styles, everything amalgamates together well to form a unique sound.
There’s a lot of strong inclusions on the album, with highlights including emotive earlier track Samsara (The Wheel Of Fortune) and the powerful and heavy in-your-face Crown (The Hierophant) but honestly, all of the tracks on the album are fantastic so you really can’t go wrong with it.
Ouroboros is a very bold album, and Hieroglyph can be very proud of what they’ve achieved with these eleven songs. Very nicely done!
9/10
