Hedon Cries - The End Of The Path Is Nigh (2011)

A death metal band from Greece has stepped into the light of the world of metal. They go by the name Hedon Cries. The band has a new album, entitled “The End Of The Path Is Nigh.” It’s got some aggressive growling vocals mixed with some wicked guitar riffs and drum work. The album falls under a mixture of death metal riffs and thrash metal drumming with a small dose of black metal tones in between.

Wild guitar riffs rain down on you immediately in the first track, entitled “Like Snow In Her Hand.” The vocals come in with low deep tones, delivering vicious growls that rumble along with the quick double bass pedal drumming. The chorus adds a bit more flavor to the music as the guitars slow down and become more melodic with catchy notes layered with more monstrous growls. As this track fades, you are met with more melodic riffs in “In Deep Red.” The guitars start off repetitive along with devilish vocals. The drum fills are full of detail as they carry you right to the next verse. The tempo changes up a lot in this track keeping you at the edge of your seat at all times. There’s even some fancy guitar work towards the end of the track that really draw emotion to the music.

Explosive drum rolls open up in “Your Morbid Figure.” Rapid snares pound away at you as screechy guitar come flying in with heavy distortion. This will definitely get your head bobbing. Extremely quick guitar riffs make it hard to catch everything at once so you may consider replaying this one a couple of times. The riffs are just relentless and don’t give you anytime to breathe. Songs like “I Hate You” and “In A White Page” open up with similar screechy guitars as other instruments slowly enter. The vocal performance is excellent as it drives straight through the music. Some of the guitars get a little basic in certain areas but it’s the deafening growls that keep you hooked. A hell raising solo would have mad things a little more interesting.

“Forgotten Beauty” has got lots of energy as crashing cymbals and catchy melodies jump out right from the get and really build up the verses. The reverse contain chugging guitar riffs and eerie string synths that surround the demonic growls as you’re lead quickly to the refrain. The drums really pick up with detail during the chorus as the guitars also become layered giving a more thick sound to the mix. The last couple of minutes have some really catchy repetitive riffs that’ll have you pumping your fist in no time.

The album comes to a close with “Touching The void,” which runs for about seven and a half minutes and opens with another catchy guitar riff which are later combined with upbeat drum patterns. This really gives off a progressive sound in the beginning as more and more instruments later jump in as it all builds up to the verse. Monstrous growling vocals enter along with deep chugging guitars that follow in the background. The best part about this song is that they include a lot of dirty guitar work throughout the song. You’re hit with some sort of solo after almost every verse. This pays off for some of the empty solo songs earlier in the album.

Overall "The End Of The Path Is Nigh" stands well on it’s own and has some pretty amazing vocals that stay consistent throughout each song. I think Hedon Cries still need to add a little more creativeness to their song writing and maybe find a couple new ideas to keep them running for longer than three minutes long. I definitely see potential in the band and would definitely keep an eye out for more of their work in the future.

7/10

Official Site - http://www.hedoncries.com/
Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/hedoncries