review: Hilt "Journey To The Center Of The Bowl"

Way back when I used to listen to industrial-aggro-dust-etc, I was obviously trying to find anything and everything in terms of more material by some of my favorite artists, such as pre-"The Process" Skinny Puppy. One of the side project that Kevin and Dwayne had when not busy doing the Pups was a weird band which used to be called "The Flu" ages before it became more common knowledge as "Hilt". The story goes that the Nettwerk label dared Kevin and company that they couldn't produce an album for a micro-budget, so as Hilt they recorded their debut "Call The Ambulance (Before I Hurt Myself)". To paraphrase Nicholas Marker (ex-DFS, ex-Holoskans, ex-Son Of Sky) at the time, he said that most Skinny Puppy side projects (such as Hilt and Download) sounded unfocused, as though it was Puppy material thrown in a blender.


Hilt's second album "Journey To The Center Of The Bowl" is marginally different than their first. Aside from a few rare stand-out songs, the whole of the album feels like a jumbled mess, where every track seems to be part of each other, and the entire thing essentially feels like some kind of a drug trip with varying degrees of success. There are moments when things feel very pleasant but in general, the album sounds more like someone's bad Inside joke to another, and as a listener, it feels as though we are being left out of the journey. The music does sound more garbbled than on their debut, and in the end one is left with the impression that without being under the influence of a specific mind altering substance, one simply can not follow Hilt's mostly abstract musings. Still, there is Something strangely and undeniably attractive about this album and it remains what it is and doesn't seem to have aged all that horribly, since it wasn't following any time-specific trends to begin with, save for late 80s/early 90s industrial amalgam without that Jourgensen metal guitar feel (although one does feel that grunge influence which was tainting everything of the era, before hip-hop did something similar aroun 1996). I often feel like saying Something like "listen at your own risk", but in the end the album is far from being abrassive; it simply is weirded out! In my opinion, there are no standout tracks but rather standout moments, and you have to listen to the whole to find out what workds best for you.