At the time, I was of the opinion that "rock" had died in a way and told him that to me playing rock music had become derivative and you'd need some sort of fusion or genre melding in order to keep it interesting but at that point it's no longer just rock.
My point for this was mainly the fact that what people would have referred to as rock music at the time was effectively pop music with electric guitars or people endlessly slobbering on Led Zeppelin's proverbial dick, hoping to get covered in Classic Rock magazine, a magazine somehow still being published on a regular basis.
Similar to my thought process about punk being more of a state of mind than a genre, as well as my wider acknowledgement of the differences between scenes and genres (might do an editorial on this to be entirely self-indulgent and pretentious when I can be bothered) my views on this matter have evolved since then. What this means, for the purposes of this review, is that I genuinely believe there are great bands out there today playing music I'd comfortably call rock (maybe even adding a roll on the back of it).
I know this is of no consequence to most of you and simply my stream-of-consciousness type rambling taking over but it has a big impact on my perception of the album at hand, The Hyena Kill's Spun.
I was blown away by how catchy, energetic and. honestly, fucking huge they sounded. I went straight onto Bandcamp, got Atomised as well as Scrape My Bones, both of which have been on my regular rotation ever since.
To try and describe The Hyena Kill's sound (in case rock and roll wasn't clear enough), they're a two-piece armed with big beats, massive riffs and passionate vocals ranging from soft cleans all the way up the spectrum to manic screaming. All of this is done in a manner that brings to mind Deftones, Queens of The Stone Age and even, in a way, latter day Norma Jean. Despite the first two being fairly easy influences to spot that's not to say The Hyena Kill sounds derivative, especially not on Spun. The band has a sound that's instantly recognizable, somehow fresh, exciting and nostalgic at the same time, a description I can't remember using since I first heard Boards of Canada's Music Has A Right To Children.
Honestly I don't have that much more to say about the album except the hyperbolic statement that The Hyena Kill are genuinely the best rock band around and they should be playing fucking stadium shows although I'd happily attend more grimy basement gigs.
If I'd spun this more (eh?) before writing my "Third of the Way There" list I would have had to find some silly excuse to make it my top six for the first third of the year so perhaps it's all for the best; I didn't have to elaborate on some verbose and entirely unnecessary excuse and The Hyena Kill don't have to share this blog-space with anyone else, but rather get this article all to themselves.
So that's all for today; buy the album below because otherwise you'll stream it so many times Bandcamp will tell you it's time to open up your heart and wallet, and at that time you'll want to buy it anyway. Save yourself the feeling of guilt and get right on what will surely end up being one of the best albums of 2018.
Jon Thor