H27 - Dark Skies Filled With Lies Review

Can a band actually mix alternative rock with Metal music and still made a very decent album?

Can a band mix lots of indistinct influences in an album and still make it work fine?

Can a band have at the same an exciting musical production that enriches the sound of all instruments and still sound exciting and not overproduced?

Is time travel even possible while listening to a band?

Well, H27 with “Dark Skies Filled With Lies” manage to answer all these question with a big and sound Yup.

At the very beginning “Coming Home” shows a nice guitar strumming that addresses to a truckload of songs recorded in those 50 years of Metal music. Then, suddenly the song has an incredible and unbelievable plot twist to a an alternative 1990 rock section. Maybe similar to Nirvana’s “Something in the Way” or any other. Ok, first time I was listening to the album I was still deciding if I would review it or not. I then thought “No way, this is too much!” and I was about to yank the album out of my player when suddenly the song had a change of heart to a hard picking Metal tune. “Ah, much better” was my thought at the time. By that time I was analysing the odd mix H27 did in the album with some elements of alternative rock with Metal. This song proved me it could get cool enough.

It’s impossible to list all the influences a track as “Severed Anus & The Stuffed Rat” showcases. Aside the aforementioned influences the track many others being a complete tour around Metal music. The album goes by the same feeling. The fan that listens to it all will discover a new influence in each track of the 12 the album delivers. From 1980’s Hard Rock to Thrash Metal “Dark Skies Filled With Lies” offers a great deal of hooks and catchy tunes to enjoy the fan. Though on paper some of the mixes seem not to catch on H27 made its way to make them work out. To my dear fan not say that I made all this up here are some of the bands the press release say influenced H27: Anthrax, Dokken, Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Iron Maiden, Joe Satriani, L.A. Guns, Megadeth, Pantera, Queensrÿche, Sevendust, Slayer. Do you see what I mean?

Though it’s possible to hear clearly all instrumentals and most notably the guitars, there are some passages and moments that they don’t fit, I mean they don’t absuletely glue or stick. “Iron Will” showcases this with flying rainbows. Some guitar riffs and phrases sound out but the way I see it this is exactly what makes “Dark Skies Filled With Lies” very interesting. Maybe the clean prodcution besides giving the sound punch also allowed the guitars to be closely heard and, ergo, made the mistakes – Let’s call them mistakes though I don’t believe they are mistakes – more clear. For some this would be a blasphemy, but I guess, for many metalheads this is only spice to the dough.

Listening to “Dark Skies Filled With Lies” made me travel in time. Most of the songs made me remind other songs from the good old past in an odd way. I mean, it wasn’t exactly the songs, but the sound H27 produced. I consider this good not to say great. Dare I say this is one of the most interesting yet odd albums of the year?

H27 “Dark Skies Filled With Lies” was reelased on April 29th via Postmortem Ash Music.

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