Ether are an outfit from Canadian guy Scythrawl, whom you might know as well from several great projects such as Unquintessence, Nefastus Dies or Trails Of Anguish. Under this moniker’s name, Scythrawl did release a first album about eight years ago, called Deprived, Repressed Feelings. Those who know, and appreciate that first effort, will certainly be pleased with the sophomore album, Hymns Of Failure, a double-CD with six pieces that last for ninety (!) minutes.
And as from opening song Failure, this guy’s craftsmanship gets clear. The song starts off like a whirlwind, a pyroclastic eruption. The first riffs are mind-blowing, pushing forward on heavy and very fast riffs and rhythms. Characteristic too are the main vocals: filled with hatred and disgust, rather shouting than screaming (like a hysterical Hardcore-Punk shouter). But here too Scythrawl uses more of his vocal timbre, by adding (quite a lot of) spoken words, clean vocals, and some growls and grunts. That vocal differentiation comes back within other aspects of the album: instrumental performance, tempo and structure. When coming to the speed, there is quite some variation in between all extremes, though the main focus lies on high-energetic tempos and blasting assaults. When talking about the variation of the song structures, I need to refer to the speed-changes, which I just mentioned, and the related breaks, of course. But the offset too comes from different angles, mingling a wide scala on melodies, injected with moments that are sometimes epic, then again rather violent and aggressive, or integer and introspective (the latter being within the slower passages especially, yet do not ignore the use of piano, for example – cf. a piece like Emptiness). Most of the time it’s a certain fast-forward attitude that rules, but more than once some schizoid and dissonant sound takes over. These moments are often supported by artillery drum patterns, and in those cases I think exaggeration has come too close, and that’s a pity. That drum machinery does create a turn-off feeling, I’m afraid. Another aspect is the use of Ambient / Industrial / Noise passages to end each song with.
Conclusion: Hymns Of Failure turns out to be a worthy successor of Ether’s debut with quite some variety in mood, atmosphere, execution and sonic result. In comparison to Deprived, Repressed Feelings, this one is much more experimental and progressive, and therefore, in combination with the lengthy duration of each track, the result might seem hard to digest. It’s not the ‘usual’ Quebecois-oriented sound one might expect, and the sound / production is massive.