Credits:

Hirax

Description:

By bringing together the normally disparate building blocks of metal, punk, hardcore and thrash, Hirax’s debut album, Raging Violence, in many ways reflected the complex socio-musical soup of their native Los Angeles. But, even more than their competent brand of speedcore, what made Hirax instantly recognizable (and almost as immediately enervating) was the idiosyncratic vocal style of frontman Katon W. DePena, which constantly oscillated from mid-range thrash-speak to ululating, quasi-operatic screams. Indeed, not since King Diamond had a singer so polarized listeners into love/hate camps, although, as Raging Violence highlights such as “Evil Forces” and “Guardian Protector” easily prove, neither of DePena’s dual voices posed major problems so long as he stuck with one or the other for decent stretches of time. Unfortunately, the vast majority of this album’s 14 tracks found him bouncing back and for