Four years after “The Light Carriers” won critical acclaim for its low, slow, punishing yet melodic metal, Huntington’s trio is set to release their new six-song CD “They Will Surface” Friday night in Huntington.
“A lot of people thought we broke up,” bassist Chris Tackett said. “We’ve just been really busy with our lives.”
Tackett said he’s glad to finally get the CD out. “It’s like closure I guess,” he said. “It’s always exciting to release a new record, maybe even more so with this one, considering what it took to get it off the ground.”
While the band (Tackett; Mac Walker: guitar/synth/sequencing; Brett Fuller: sounds) took their sweet time getting the sophomore effort done, Tackett said the actual making of the music was the easy part.
“The material comes pretty easy,” Tackett said. “A lot of the best parts happen while Mac and I are recording. Same thing on “The Light Carriers;” we start recording an idea, and it evolves as we go. It’s a really fun way to record, except when you’re on the clock.”
Being on the clock takes on more importance when you're pounding out 10-minute orchestrations with no vocals, creating sonic landscapes that, in parts, sound like the best Nine Inch Nails instrumentals. While “They Will Surface” has six songs, there’s almost an hour’s worth of material. The songs run long and flow together with few discernable starting points.
Tackett noted the similarities and divergences between “Surface” and “Carriers.” “They were written pretty close together. Some of the stuff on “They Will Surface” was supposed to be on the first one. Our first idea was to do a complete turn around from the first record; really soft and quiet, no drums. It didn’t quite work out that way. It’s somewhere in the middle I guess. It’s still heavy, but we branched out on some of the trippy stuff we touched on for “The Light Carriers.”
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HellrideMusic.com
Hyatari - They Will Surface (Caustic Eye Productions)
By Chris Barnes
January 22, 2009
What if I labeled an all instrumental ambient recording like Hyatari’s They Will Surface “ambitious” or used descriptions like “an illustrious swell of unfettered sound”? Would you call me things like “ hack music journalist art fag”? I should hope not. Not on this website anyway, where we are all well-traveled, well-read and given to the high brow proclivity now and again, stuff that might not be embraced by our more proletariat peers. What is that you say? “Art fag”? Fuck you, you fuck.
I don’t know much about Hyatari, other than they are from West Virginny, and had an album out called The Light Carriers (we actually sell it in the Hellride store, but I’ve not heard it) on the Codebreaker label, a label that I think is no longer in existence started by the guy who started the great Rage of Achilles label, which by coincidence, is also no longer in existence. I don’t listen to a lot of stuff of the ISIS / Neurosis vein because I’m always in a hurry and these types of recordings take too long to resolve. Plus, there’s nothing to sing-a-long to. But If you’re a guy that’s into more atmospheric stuff has a hankering for the light/dark, heavy/soft textures and contrasts, and there’s a lot of you apparently, you will like TWS. The thing is HUGE. They can do things with sound nowadays that is really stunning. The soft parts of TWS are immaculately produced… I’m listening to the beginning of my favorite track right now, called “Prolonged Exposure”. The tranquil, hypnotic opening really sounds amazing – crystal clear, almost 3-D, you can almost hear the sound of the pick moving air just before it’s subtle landing on the strings. By contrast, the heavy parts are… heavy. Not B.SON heavy, but pert near. You can almost picture the spectrum of frequencies as they blow out of the speakers. The drums sound is worth a mention as well – there’s is a snap to the snare that sounds very cool here and the drummer gets some right about 8:00 minutes in when the dynamic of “Prolonged Exposure” experiences a profound shift in just about every way imaginable. Very cool.
This isn’t everyday listening material for me, but I can fully appreciate TWS. The three Hyatari guys are some talented sum’bitches, especially considering that two of them are credited with sequencing on this. Live, it’s a guy and a guitar, a guy and a bass and DJ Fuller on the wheels of steel in the back. Kind of blows me that the ‘drummer who gets some’ on “Prolonged Exposure” may be a program. Weird that everything sounds so friggin’ organic considering the amount of sequencing I think might be involved. If you’re into stuff like B.SON or early ISIS, Hyatari may warrant your attention. Pretty impressive.
StonerRock.com
Hyatari - They Will Surface
Review by Josh27
Caustic Eye Records
Release date: 2008
Full disclosure: I’m a Hyatari fanboy. The band’s debut release, The Light Carriers, stands tall as the apex of doom-drone minimalism, gifted with a superior sense of dynamics, composition and mood supported by pulverizing machine rhythms, creative use of sampling and crushingly heavy riffs. There are elements of doom, drone, industrial, noise, post rock, and ambient in the band’s sound, but Hyatari doesn’t fit neatly into any of these categories. I’ve seen them live twice, and both times they absolutely destroyed. I greeted the news of the second album with great anticipation, and They Will Surface does not disappoint, despite my high expectations.
The title track starts the album with an electronic murmur, and then the drums kick in, only to be followed shortly thereafter by the first down-tuned slow-motion monster riff. Then about three minutes into the song, a sudden shift to near silence occurs. The sky drops out. The transition is so abrupt that when I first heard it, I thought my iPod had taken a shit. It’s the Godardian jump cut of heavy music. The opposite is also a recurrent motif - a massive riff that appears out of nowhere, without warning, shattering the calm. This anxiety pervades the album even in the quiet moments. The first album was drone with riffs and songs; this album works on the tension created by the abrupt transitions between loud and soft.
The machine rhythms sound crisp and huge, ten feet tall. The vocals on the first record were minimal, sporadic, buried in the mix; this time around, they are gone entirely. The riffs are massive, heavy, repetitious, bludgeoning. The pace is slow and deliberate, the atmosphere melancholy, tense, and agitated. Only in the album closer “By The Throne” is there any real sense of catharsis and release.
It’s all meticulously crafted… I have an image of someone working alone into the wee hours tweaking every note and nuance to make it just so. Obsessive attention to detail. Layer upon layer of sound slowly reveal themselves over multiple listens. Like The Light Carriers, They Will Surface functions more as a concept than a band, and the album operates more as a single piece than as individual songs. I consider it a tremendous achievement - They Will Surface is my favorite record of 2008.
Exclaim.ca Magazine
Hyatari
They Will Surface
By Chris Ayers
Back in 2004, Earache Records did something amazing: they signed a licensing deal with UK label Code:Breaker for the domestic releases of a handful of phenomenal doom bands (Unfold, Zatokrev, Abandon and Hyatari). Hyatari wowed fans with the following year's The Light Carriers, a slo-mo tornado of vocal-less prog doom experimentation. Sadly, the deal was short-lived and Hyatari are back in their home state of West Virginia with their latest on Caustic Eye. Guitarist Mac Walker and bassist Chris Tackett turn 180 degrees from their former alterna-metal outfit Chum and offer one of the finest NeurIsis entries in They Will Surface. The album opens with the title track, beginning with Zeni Geva-like industrial noise, then molasses-sticky drum beats and soaring keys that recall Robert Fripp's most plaintive soundscapes. The 15-minute "Abyssal Plain" is an exemplar of the genre: serene guitar washes, crestfallen reverberating chords, plodding drum beats and epic cymbal crashes. "Prolonged Exposure" and "Eight Feet of Ash" have Disappearer-esque climaxes, while "By the Throne" closes the proceedings with more graceful doom. Like Pelican with City of Echoes, Hyatari are developing exponentially into one of the underground's best outfits. (Caustic Eye)
Organart.com
HYATARI – They Will Surface (Caustic Eye)
Another new album, January has been a good month for new albums, here’s last week’s Organ album review - West Virginia drone merchants, epic dark-end drone and monolithic instrumental pieces (or is this just one long piece?). No, not just drone merchants, far more than just that - the heavier more imaginative end of post-rock, not the formulaic sort that tells you where you’re going well before you get there, no no no... this is musical adventure in the dark droning fields out there on the edges of post-rock, the bit on the edge of the dark forest they tell you not to go near – the forest with the shafts of sunlight and all the inviting colours. Beautifully ploughing through the fertile richness with their big riffs, their brooding riffs - slowly turning things in a way that’s just a little different. Kind of Sigor Ros for Sleep devotes who like it dark and somewhere over on the heavy side where drums are hit rather than just touched, where baselines brood, where things are epic and never that obvious. Recommended
CellarSeer.com
Hyatari - They Will Surface
Receiving a promo copy of this album was rather thrilling, after being such a fan of Hyatari's earlier release, "The Light Carriers". After inspecting the packaging, which is well-done and still minimal, but more involved than just black-on-black, I turned it up louder than usual and let it run through its entire length.
Hyatari has grown. It's apparent as early as the ending of the first track. They've found a new sense of melodicism to offset their sonic earthquake signature. There were always quieter parts in Hyatari's music, but mostly of the ambient sound effects and rumbling variety. Now there is a real shift of gears, not just playing soft drone and then loud drone. Sure, the quiet/loud post-metal theme is nothing new, but this is done differently. It's not the technique, but the attitude and approach that really works here. The heavy parts are still drone-laden/industrial and entirely Hyatari, but the softer, melodic sections are almost like earlier-era Isis. The ending of the song "They Will Surface" is bordering on simple genius with its Cult of Luna stylings mixed with a NIN (yes, Nine Inch Nails) melodic vibe. It sounds strange but its great to hear it explored. The same theme is revisited early on in the final track, "By the Throne", and there seems to be some Tool influence in here, but I can't put my finger on it.
"The Light Carriers" approach can still be heard all over the album, most significantly at the start of "Mountain Lit with Fire", with its drone riffage, combined with the low-mixed samples and a tremolo picked guitar. In fact, some of the riffs used in the heavier moments sound a bit recycled. I know it's hard to make up new riffs based on sustaining the lowest two-notes of a guitar, but I just couldn't help thinking of "The Light Carriers" at certain parts.
There are only a couple things keeping this album from being a masterpiece. The first is that when they took two-steps forward, they left ALL the vocals behind. I really liked hearing them from time to time for emphasis. Just a couple little punctuation marks on a couple of these songs could have really done wonders for this album. The second item is the ratio of heavy to soft. As much as I enjoyed the new sound elements and techniques that have been incorporated into this band, it has actually shifted what the band is about. I would no longer categorize this band as industrial drone or doom, but more of a Pelican / Isis / Callisto style band with semi-brief elements of drone and doom. This does have the effect of making the album more listenable, and I'm sure will gather them more fans, but I feel it has diluted that feeling of extreme despair they used to have. They're still heavier than most bands by far, but I just wanted a few more all-out-crush moments.
I'm pleased to say that I didn't even think about the production until well into the album. If your ear is turned to the production before the song, then it's a bad thing. This album is neither
under or over-produced. Still the same clear and defined, yet thundrous mix. No sound glitches or uneven volumes, and no sound tricks that wear out your hearing. I think this is a greater feat
due to the increased dynamics and subtleties explored on this record.
As there are no vocals or lyrics, other than a sparse amount of vocal samples, I'm not really sure if there is any meaning being the song titles, or if they just describe a texture. There aren't
any clues to a theme in the booklet, other than a general oceanic idea, perhaps related to giant sea-beasts rising from the bottom depths. Maybe best left to the imagination.
If you liked Hyatari's earlier work, or are into dynamic heavy music and are open to new and interesting things, then I highly suggest getting this album. The great thing is that Hyatari may
invoke many different styles, but they never clone. Just a bunch of influences run through their own filters, and they leave an unmistakable handprint on everything they touch.
New Haven Advocate (www.newhavenadvocate.com)
Hyatari
They Will Surface (Caustic Eye)
When it comes to hulking, huge-as-shit doom metal, darker isn't always better. Hyatari's song titles are what you get in place of lyrics (perfect for those who can't stand screaming). Titles like "Mountain Lit With Fire" and "Eight Feet of Ash" hint at impersonal forces of nature, but the music is filled with more reverence and majesty than terror. "By The Throne" evokes Philip Glass with its repetitions; rather than being soul-crushing, it's uplifting. It's the rare sophomore disc that improves upon the first.— Dan Barry
Interview from WVRockScene
Monday, December 8, 2008
Hyatari resurfaces with new CD
One particular focus point for Hyatari’s release show will be the video they plan to run as accompaniment for their music. “I’ve wanted to do the visual thing since the Chum days, but it was too expensive and I didn’t know what I was doing,” Tackett admitted. “With Hyatari, the idea of adding visuals really needed to happen…It hasn’t been easy putting this together, but technology has come a long way in the last ten years or so.”
“I just did a lot of research, got some footage, and edited together what I thought would fit the music and the album artwork...We haven’t actually seen the whole thing in action yet. If all goes as planned, it should really add a new dimension to the live presentation. We’re really excited about it.” The video is just one more piece to capture the listener’s attention. “You have to be pretty creative to hold the listener with instrumental stuff,” Tackett said. “Since you’re not locked in to writing “normal” songs, you can really go off in any direction. It’s more fun in a way. I’ve always been a fan of instrumental bands. They seem more interesting to me, to listen to anyway. I hate writing lyrics and never pay much attention to them. I look at what we do as sort of weird orchestration, heh. Like writing a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist.”
The video, matched up with the album artwork, should tie in nicely with the elemental feel the songs have; the drums and bass provide the low end tectonic shifts, and the guitar and synth build an atmosphere.
Tackett admitted that the DIY aspect of the band, from recording to distribution, is something that came in handy with the self-released end product. “I’ve come up short with every record label I’ve dealt with,” he said. “But now we can control all the sales. Rod [Lanham] at Caustic Eye sort of helped us along in the process. He dealt with the manufacturer, and is helping with the distribution. I’ve known Rod for a long time, so it was an easy fit.”
Hyatari enlisted the help of longtime drummer friend Jude Blevins for the live show. “Jude is a perfect fit for this band,” Tackett said. “He’s been driving back and forth [between Beckley and Huntington] for rehearsals, so he’s definitely committed to the project. The songs take on a whole new life with live drums. It’s really got me focused on the band again.”
Hyatari will be joined by Youngstown, Ohio-based Rebreather for the CD release show. “Those guys are awesome, and we’re really happy about having them on,” Tackett said.
While downplaying any expectations (“All we can do is put it out there and see what happens,” he said) about the new CD and mentioning potential East coast shows, Tackett said the support from fans and critics is pretty cool.
“It does mean a lot to me,” he said. “We all put a lot of ourselves into doing this, with little or no local following. It doesn’t really matter when it's all said and done. We do this for ourselves and just try to make great music. It isn’t for everyone and we understand that. When we put out “The Light Carriers” we had no idea it would do what it did. But we’ve gotten an overwhelmingly positive response from that record, which does make you feel pretty good. Especially when you're not expecting it.”
“I just did a lot of research, got some footage, and edited together what I thought would fit the music and the album artwork...We haven’t actually seen the whole thing in action yet. If all goes as planned, it should really add a new dimension to the live presentation. We’re really excited about it.” The video is just one more piece to capture the listener’s attention. “You have to be pretty creative to hold the listener with instrumental stuff,” Tackett said. “Since you’re not locked in to writing “normal” songs, you can really go off in any direction. It’s more fun in a way. I’ve always been a fan of instrumental bands. They seem more interesting to me, to listen to anyway. I hate writing lyrics and never pay much attention to them. I look at what we do as sort of weird orchestration, heh. Like writing a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist.”
The video, matched up with the album artwork, should tie in nicely with the elemental feel the songs have; the drums and bass provide the low end tectonic shifts, and the guitar and synth build an atmosphere.
Tackett admitted that the DIY aspect of the band, from recording to distribution, is something that came in handy with the self-released end product. “I’ve come up short with every record label I’ve dealt with,” he said. “But now we can control all the sales. Rod [Lanham] at Caustic Eye sort of helped us along in the process. He dealt with the manufacturer, and is helping with the distribution. I’ve known Rod for a long time, so it was an easy fit.”
Hyatari enlisted the help of longtime drummer friend Jude Blevins for the live show. “Jude is a perfect fit for this band,” Tackett said. “He’s been driving back and forth [between Beckley and Huntington] for rehearsals, so he’s definitely committed to the project. The songs take on a whole new life with live drums. It’s really got me focused on the band again.”
Hyatari will be joined by Youngstown, Ohio-based Rebreather for the CD release show. “Those guys are awesome, and we’re really happy about having them on,” Tackett said.
While downplaying any expectations (“All we can do is put it out there and see what happens,” he said) about the new CD and mentioning potential East coast shows, Tackett said the support from fans and critics is pretty cool.
“It does mean a lot to me,” he said. “We all put a lot of ourselves into doing this, with little or no local following. It doesn’t really matter when it's all said and done. We do this for ourselves and just try to make great music. It isn’t for everyone and we understand that. When we put out “The Light Carriers” we had no idea it would do what it did. But we’ve gotten an overwhelmingly positive response from that record, which does make you feel pretty good. Especially when you're not expecting it.”
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