Hyponic - Black Sun (2001)

The debut of China's Hyponic, 'Black Sun', is a bit more death metal than its successor, 'The Noise of Time'. If I didn't know any better I would've sworn these guys were from New Jersey as their music sounds uncannily similar to early Incantation, Symphony of Grief, Solemn and others from that area. Suffice to say that this is some supremely evil sounding shit!

As I mentioned above, this album is definitely a bit more on the DM side of the fence but fear not, there is plenty of doom to go around as well, but do not expect the droned out Esoteric worship found on Hyponic's sophomore LP.

Vocally, this is some putrid shit, right up there alongside Craig Pillard and Mark Mastro (Rottrevore). There is a righteously evil vibe that emanates from each guitar riff and though the pace is decidedly faster than what the band would go on later to produce, things never get too fast, meaning that the rotten vibe of this album is never trampled over by mindless blast beating. Thank Yog-Sothoth for that!

Unfortunately, these guys are supremely sluggish at releasing material as evidenced by the fact that their last album came out in 2005!! And even then, that was four fucking years after this album! Apparently they are still around as they have a Facebook page (which you can visit here) that they seem to update every so often, but as far as new material goes, your guess is as good as mine.