Don’t Miss It: Scythian’s Hubris Is Excellence

Hi MetalSucks reader! Here in the last days of 2015, let’s spotlight a few albums that may have been crowded off your radar. Some risk a greater chance of eluding your attention via their arrival during the highly-distracting holiday season — and at the time when we’re looking back at the year’s best, then looking forward to vacation days, shopping, and family snuggling. Others maybe got stuck in line behind anticipated releases by your most trusted bands. Best case scenario, you’ve been jamming all of them for weeks. If not, don’t miss ’em now!

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Introducing a rad new extreme metal band back in April, our Vince Neilstein engineered a handy bit of context. He named a pair of iconic dinosaur metal bands and asked us to imagine their vibe with “an extra-frosty layer of grimness on top.” In short, the “hooks” of metal’s tradition, the “heavy” of its revolt. Or, the next step in normalization of heaviness, in which each wave of “regular people” comes to embrace a heavier band than did the previous generation. Led Zep to Quiet Riot to Gn’R to Metallica, and so on.

So that means that in 2015 the bands that fall just barely on the other side of the “heavy line” also are heavier than ever. Just like in 1988, when Sepultura and Slayer were a tad insane-sounding to fans whose standards were set by The Number Of The Beast and Holy Diver. In early Sepultura’s spot here in 2015 is Scythian (UK), authors of Hubris In Excelsis. It’s an instant classic of hummable death metal that Neilstein’s analogy (above) fits like an Isotoner: the flights of melodious fancy like Sepultura’s “Altered States” delivered with the next era’s heaviness, the shimmery whammy bar solos of Cause Of Death and How Will I Laugh Tomorrow powered by blast beats out the ass, the aura of Slayer’s senseless death with the impact of daily mass shootings. That’s what it is; the exciting thing is how awesome it is.

Hubris In Excelsis by Scythian came out in August. Get it here and here.