Album Review: Hybrid Sheep – Hail to the Beast (Tenacity Music)

French metallers Hybrid Sheep are back with their second full-length album, Hail to the Beast. The album was released on the 27th January 2017 via Tenacity Music.

2017 is turning out to be a super strong year for death metal & its many variants. The underground scene is brimming with bands all out to make a name for themselves with crushing, brutal sounds.

Hybrid Sheep are no different but instantly mark themselves out as a band to keep a close eye on with an absolutely shredding start. Warface is aggressively heavy with deep, throaty vocal roars & a beat that gets the head-banging going. However rather then just keep punching away, Hybrid Sheep throw in a lovely piano finish that just freshens the mind for what follows.

Towards Ruin & Oblivion’s disjointed riffs, Following Blind Leaders’ head-slamming drumming, The World Eater’s incredible pace & guitar solo (best on the album)…it’s just quality song after another.

It’s easy to get disinterested in melodic death metal, a lot of it sounds the same & there isn’t a whole bunch of imagination going on. However when it’s being played so ferociously & so damn well who cares!?

The Last Breath of a Dying Earth offers a short reprieve from the destructive vocals as the instruments pick up the slack for 3 minutes of pure heaviness.

The only time the album is found lacking is with the occasional ‘by the numbers’ track. Premature Burial is solid enough but not very exciting in comparison to the tracks surrounding it. The same could be said for Hail to the Beast if it wasn’t for the mind-melting solo that sees it out.

Hybrid Sheep do an incredible job of naturally fitting in their guitar solos & they are never disappointing no matter how short they are. The penultimate song, Harvest of Humans has a short one at the start & helps pump you up for what follows. Arguably the best track on the album, it’s got all the fury of what we’ve heard before but throws in this ‘Tron’ like effect that just sounds amazing alongside the metal. Pay attention people, this how you mix the two!

Before you even know it the album is drawing to a close. The short & punchy number of Into the Lion’s Den finishes things off nicely. In your face with a killer breakdown, it’s final slow moments with a deep throaty roar & thumping drums is just the perfect way to finish off a damn fine metal album.

Hail to the Beast Full Track Listing:

1. Warface
2. Towards Ruin & Oblivion
3. Following Blind Leaders
4. The World Eater
5. The Last Breath of a Dying Earth
6. Premature Burial
7. Hail to the Beast
8. Harvest of Humans
9. Into the Lions Den

You can pick up Hail to the Beast via Tenacity Music here, on Bandcamp here & on iTunes here. You can also pick up some of the bands earlier work here. Check the band out over on Facebook, over on Twitter & on YouTube. 

Make sure you also check out Tenacity Music for more bands!