On the cover art for heyday’s ruin, we see a photograph of a lush green forest in the background of a field filled with barren, brown grass. A fitting visual for an EP described simply as “about climate and personal crises”. As the first track bursts into our ears, we get a sense of what hspdn is depicting: a robotic, dour future. Spanning four songs, this project incorporates elements of Doom, Drone, Shoegaze and Industrial flavours as it drags us through the impending pressure of a lifeless hereafter.
Roaring to life with an “in medias res” introduction, not good enough immediately sets the stage with its eerie groove. The drums punch like an assembly machine while the bass whines between plucky synth and smooth, indoctrinating low end. The bass is my favourite part of the record. It feels so bizarre, like a campy mix of human and machine. An endlessly captivating cyborg of sorts. There is definitely some Nine Inch Nails DNA in here. Over top of this haunting rhythm, hspdn lays down walls of screeching guitars that complement the reverb-drenched, robotic vocals. I mean robotic sonically, not through performance. The vocals sparsely chime in with simple, short melodies, reminding me of an alarm or announcement on repeat. It feels like I’m creeping through an abandoned, tech-heavy laboratory that is about to explode. All this as the singer wrestles with the last bits of his humanity and what makes him human, his mistakes.
The title track follows up with its eerie predecessor with a tense, doom-laden, more human-oriented vibe. The slow arpeggiation of warbly distorted guitar ringing out reminds me of King Woman with bits of Health dropped throughout. forget, bridges the gap between the two stylings as we see the singer’s voice get even more robotic and at points bouncing back and forth. Long, drawn-out guitars litter the track like thick, heavy smog. Ever Present but sour and imposing.
Closing out the project is the soothing unrest which sees hspdn leave the drums and heavy distortion for massive leads and enrapturing soundscapes. This is easily my favourite song on the EP. It feels like gazing up at a sundowning sky after a hard day. It channels the power that nature has to inspire us to continue through turmoil, pain and weariness. Its melancholy beauty is the perfect complement to the rest of the project. A perfect antidote for the synthetic, impending doom of a humanless future. Not a solution but a brief moment of respite.
Written by Lando Flakes
