Review: Hexheart – 'Midnight On A Moonless Night'

HEXHEART
'Midnight On A Moonless Night'
METROPOLIS RECORDS

Sometimes a side project takes on a life of its own beyond “here are a few tracks that don't fit the main band”, and Hexheart is a project that may have possibly started out this way, but has become something much bigger. Founded by Jasyn Bangert of God Module, Hexheart has quickly swelled into a fully-formed project with a distinct identity and as the début album, 'Midnight On A Moonless Night', it is already demonstrating staying power in its own right.

Moving away from the spooky industrial of God Module altogether, Hexheart blends post-punk, synthpop, darkwave and coldwave sounds into a dance-friendly beast that owes just as much to the likes of The Cure and Joy Division as it does to Cold Cave and She Wants Revenge.

Songs such as 'A Thousand Times', 'Stars In Your Eyes', 'Second Sight', 'Problems And Bigger Ones', 'Never Understand', and 'Faces' are strong dance floor ready mixes of classic 80s guitars and strong twenty-first century alternative electronic music that moves between light and dark textures with ease.

It's a strong selection of songs, but there are one or two points that still need to be ironed out. There are a couple of tracks where the vocals sound a bit thin and don't seem to quite gel with the mix and could have perhaps been strengthened by a lower or a more melodic delivery. Also, there are one or two points where the tracks just begin to stray too far into industrial waters which pulls focus from the post-punk and darkwave elements.

Production-wise though it is in keeping with the High standards that we've come to expect from Bangert, and despite this radical departure in style from his usual work, the songs have been constructed and mixed well. The album preserves it's core influences, both old and new, without feeling like its trying to pander to the old school, or trying to clone what is around today.

'Midnight On A Moonless Night' is a good first outing that shows a project with a lot of potential and a lot of directions it could possibly go. There are some brilliantly catchy tracks included here that should see the Hexheart name take hold in its own right. 

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