Hexacron

Good production goes a long way for a band. Obviously, not every band has a lot of money to work with, and can’t spend a lot on recording and mastering, but the music is a hell of a lot more important than liner notes and CD art, but somebody failed to tell this to Hexacron. The production isn’t awful, but I found myself straining to hear the vocals a good amount of the time, and with this kind of music, that’s really not going to fly.

They play a style very similar to bands like Ion Dissonance and Dillinger Escape Plan, but the execution isn’t pulled off nearly as well.

Their tech-metal style would be greatly enhanced by better, more clear production, because more than anything, that’s sorely lacking on this effort. No matter the volume, it can’t seem to be loud enough, especially as far as the vocals are concerned. The basis of the songs is pretty solid, and for only being a three-piece, they pull that off well, but it all comes back to the songs being difficult to hear. The vocalist's harsh, scowling approach is heard, but it’s entirely incomprehensible, to the point of rarely being able to tell whether or not he’s even repeating the same word over, and over, and over. “Lazy Sky” makes light of all the problems that this release really has; those nagging vocals just won’t show much sign of life, and the necessary intricacies of a genre like this aren’t fleshed out enough because of the production.

Instead of being able to hear every change of time signature, every start and stop, it just seems a lot more muddled than it should be. You’ll be able to tell how fast they’re playing, but just not much past that. It’s frustrating more than anything, because it’s pretty evident they could have a sound technical approach, if only things were more clear. “Saturnine” is the band's one track where their abilities shine through. The production isn’t any different, but for whatever reason it seems they’re able to momentarily overcome that. A good amount of the track is instrumental, and it builds, and builds, with some jazzy interludes thrown in there, and it sounds pretty solid. The vocals show some changes in pitch and inflection, rather than just one uniform stage of growling.

The bottom line is that a band this heavy, playing this sort of style needs to be better produced. There’s no way around it; the raw feel would not lend itself well to Dillinger or Ion Dissonance as it might other bands. So despite an awful band name and piss-poor production, there’s definitely some solid potential on it, and with the right recording, they just may be able to expand on that.