Vehemency Three words could sum up Hinsides’ sophomore album Universe Aspire in Mysticism quite accordingly: Norwegian black metal. Well, that’s not exactly what comes to mind when the album begins with its 7-minute intro ”Dark Matter Dawn” consisting of weird sounds and e.g. guitar feedback, but when ”666 to Nero” kicks in after, the deal is clear.

And the deal is a bit too clear, I’m afraid. Almost 50 minutes of cold, evil AND unsurprising riffage gets easily dull and makes me wonder what, if anything, makes Universe Aspire in Mysticism better than all the others in this field. Anyhow, atmospherically the album does its job well as a pieringly cold assault. Guitars are heavily distorted, tempo is often at middle or fast levels, vocals in the usual high-pitched style, evil melodies with slight flirts with sadness... Nothing really stands out. Everything is safe and sound. By the book. To make some comparisons, a little less melancholic version of Blodsrit or Amystery comes to my mind, in addition to the obvious influential bands.

Universe Aspire in Mysticism is one of those albums that I can always put on the background and find it unharassing yet also quite unremarkable: it’s indeed a decent album that has just been done many times already. Some originality to the mix would have made the album a lot more interesting, especially because the album runs for almost 50 minutes. I’m sure these guys have skill to evolve their sound a bit and I’m hoping they don’t consciously try to restrict that too much.