Meow. One of only a few bands that got me hooked upon first encounter. A Tribute to Insanity was a very pleasant experience and I consider myself lucky just to be aware of the band's existence.
The culprit was probably their guitarist Mike Wead, who was also representing both Mercyful Fate and King Diamond, and by knowing that Hexenhaus was one of his first bands, I was tempted to give them a go. Now, the thing about checking up certain "fairly unknown" artist's beginnings is that you'll either stumble upon complete utter garbage with cover songs being their only worthy artistic output, or something awesomely fantastic with a force so strong, subduing to no-one.
My impression was the latter, maybe with some esoteric bits here and there ... still, the overall experience is overwhelming. I already feel the need to mention the median song: As Darkness Falls. I think anxiety is the leading role here, as the rhythm guitar tends to behave very nonconformistic and constantly raises the tension whilst the dry and penetrative drum beats keep the constant drive. Suddenly, we have a breakdown and you really don't know what to expect after that ... It all kind of settles after the amazing solo bits, which is a fine way of disclosure for the upcoming songs. You will be able to find similarities in all songs, it's just that the referred one embodies the entire idea the most and the best.
So, it's not in the fields of energetic and compulsive creations, I'd say it's more of a haunting but groovy experience. For me at least. But then again, it does surprise with a few skull-crashing parts, just to throw you off-track, like for example Memento Moris - The Dead Are Restless.
Compliments to extraordinary musicianship and evident effort that bypassed the poor production quality.
And also for featuring Jean Delville's masterpiece for the cover art, which a few years later also found its place on the cover of Morbid Angel's - Blessed Are the Sick.
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