Hyenas Laugh is a sensory overload. It’s a hydra. A multi-headed, composite beast of a song. And as a result, it is perhaps best dissected and described in 3 acts.
Act I: A post-rock, apocalyptic hellscape. The slow burn ignites and begins with guitar harmonics and clean tones, but very shortly after, it combusts and explodes into an almighty Puke Wolf cacophony. It’s doom, it’s stoner, it’s sludge, it’s hardcore, but it’s also much more dynamic than any of your preconceptions about those sub-genres would allow you to imagine.
Act II: The brutality subsides, giving way to the more gentle instrumentation that opened the song and to Sophia Larsdotter’s violin. She takes the spotlight, and her emotive, show-stopping performance blends perfectly with the subtle, scenic backing. Like a rose that grew from concrete, there is a respite and a moment of stunning, striking beauty, in amongst the noise.
Act III: We descend again into the quagmire. Dominated by a guest contribution from hardcore/screamo quartet Demersal, larynx-shredding vocalists battle for space. Like primal scream therapy, the same line is yelled over and over again: “Some swear they’ll change / but you never will.” Further and further we tumble into the inferno, and by the time we reach the fifth circle of hell – reserved for the angriest amongst us, of which these men surely are – both/all vocalists seem entirely spent.
Hyenas Laugh is not a song. It’s a violent, spiritual act of catharsis.
Written by Kinda Grizzly
