OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 13): HIPPOTRAKTOR, TEN TON SLUG, IHSAHN

(written by Islander)

Welcome to the lucky 13th Part of this list. In line with my original plan of posting a new installment every weekday until January expires, I now have 9 Parts left to go. Out of line with previous years’ lists, I’ve already planned which songs to include in each of those remaining Parts, though I suspect I’ll still make revisions because my brain won’t stay still and it’s so fucking difficult to stare at all the worthy songs I haven’t made room for.

As for today’s installment (and most of the ones still to come), I have grouped the songs together because they include certain stylistic ingredients that I thought would fit them together well. But you’ll be the judge of that, of course. To see the songs in the preceding 12 Parts, use this link.

 

HIPPOTRAKTOR

I was late catching up to Hippotraktor‘s new album Stasis. Even after reading Andy Synn‘s interesting review last June, I didn’t jump to it, and in fact didn’t do so until seeing that Gonzo named it No. 20 on his year-end list and DGR put it at No. 8 on his 50-record YE list. The former acclaimed it as “simultaneously abrasive and transcendent, which is a balance that few bands can strike as skillfully as this,” and the latter included this in his extensive explanation for the YE pick:

These intricate and interwoven songs all seem to draw you in, so that when Hippotraktor get almost painterly with their more ambient segments across Stasis you’re more than happy to join them for the ride. The fun part about all of this is that even though there is some of the heaviest stuff that Hippotraktor have broken out to date within Stasis, the clean-sung segments are equally as strong and seemingly acquire just as much focus. It’s why I found myself continually falling into Hippotraktor‘s orbit with this one. They’re doing the dance of polar opposites and weaving them together into some absolutely gorgeous pieces of music.

So, finally in December, I decided to see for myself what all the crowing was about. I will say upfront that Hippotraktor‘s music is on the outer edges of what appeals to my own tastes, but the more I delved into the album the more I got caught up in what they were doing. The title track in particular really got its hooks in me.

Andy called it “a massive, biomechanical monster containing some of the calmest, and most crushing, moments on the entire album.” I thought it genuinely deserved a place here — and not just because of the times when it’s a head-moving slugger.

https://orcd.co/hippotraktor
https://www.facebook.com/hippotraktorband/

 

TEN TON SLUG

After you hear this next song you may begin to understand the logic behind my grouping of these three. It’s not the first song I heard from this Irish band’s new album Colossal Oppressor, nor the first track from the album that I put on my massive list of candidates for this series. That was “Mindless and Blind,” which I yelled about after I first heard it last March. But after hearing the whole album, I revised my choice. I mean, this is an album where you could make a good argument for almost every song, but the one I picked is the opener, “The Ooze.”

It’s not as proggy as the Hippotraktor song, nor is there any singing (only the sounds of beasts who’ve taken human form), but it’s definitely a heavyweight slugger, and a highly headbangable one, and it also presents sterling contrasts of its own — as you’ll discover in the first 60 seconds. As Andy Synn observed in his review of the album, “its slithering melodic undercurrent and humongous, bellowing cries of “Subjugation is here!” also make their mark.

https://tentonslug.bandcamp.com/album/colossal-oppressor
https://www.facebook.com/TenTonSlug

 

IHSAHN

Now we kind of loop back around and get closer to the way today’s installment begins. This next song, “The Promethean Spark,” is very much a head-swirling prog metal adventure, and it includes excellent singing (along with the ferociously gnashing snarls), but like both of the tracks above it in this installment, it’s also highly headbangable, a kick-starter for your pulse. Here’s how Andy described the song in his review of Ihsahn‘s 2024 self-titled album:

“The Promethean Spark”, the album’s hook-heavy first track (not counting the somewhat disposable intro of “Cervus Venator”) immediately showcases how seamlessly and intimately interwoven the orchestral elements are into Ihsahn‘s signature sound, effortlessly enhancing the song’s electrifying Prog-Metal riffage and vivacious back-and-forth vocal interplay with an aura of gleaming grandeur that successfully elevates the track to a whole new level without overwhelming it.

P.S. I gave serious thought about picking other songs from the album, including “Pilgrimage to Oblivion,” so forgive me if you would have picked a different one.

https://Ihsahn.lnk.to/IHSAHN
https://www.facebook.com/ihsahnmusic