Escapist is the intriguing fourth album from German progressive metallers The Hirsch Effekt. Following on from their Holon album trilogy, this is a more standalone piece and it’s a great bit of work.
The complexity to the instrumentation is awesome. There’s always something different happening beneath the vocals and it really helps to maintain your interest as a result because you’re never quite sure what’s around the corner! The attention to detail is great, with each individual element coming together to form a rather magnificent picture as a whole, and it’s pretty fun to listen and try to pinpoint each individual riff and melody (there’s a lot). The vocals are great too, with several different styles utilised over the course of the album (from soft and avant-garde to harsh and aggressive) and they lend themselves well to the music.
One especially great moment on the album is the combination of seventh and eight tracks, Nocturne and Aldebaran respectively. Nocturne is a very soft and gentle instrumental number that adds a nice bit of ambience and atmosphere to the album, and it cascades magnificently into the following track Aldebaran, which is a face-meltingly-awesome slab of noise that will get your head banging in no time. The juxtaposition between the pair is fantastic.
As a whole, The Hirsch Effekt have put together a great album. There’s a lot going on within its hour-long duration and trust us when we say you won’t want to miss it!
9/10
