I’ve only been to West Virginia once in my life; I was about 12 years old. Even at that tender, pubescent age, when hormones had me thinking of little other than boobies (so much has changed), I was able to look around and notice that it was the whitest place I’d ever seen. White people, everywhere. 95.99 percent Caucasian, according to the 2005 census as quoted on Wikipedia. It was one pale-ass state.

But these aren’t the rich white motherfuckers who made a rectal dartboard of our economy and stole our retirements out from under us to give themselves multi-million dollar bonuses. These are coal miners, who’ve been screwed over by the same powers that be since the days of the robber barons. They’ve hollowed out their beautiful stretch of Appalachia and have what exactly to show for it? Bosses with cash enough to get the best PR out of each and every mine collapse.

The inherent conflict of their home state and working man’s frustration is evident in the instrumental post-doom offerings of Huntington, West Virginia trio Hyatari (all white). Originally brought to prominence with the helping hand of a 2005 reissue of their self-released 2004 album, The Light Carriers by Earache Records subsidiary Code:Breaker, the band soon found themselves in similar straits as labelmates Figure of Merit, Abandon and Zatokrev. When the label project went under, so did they. Hyatari were off the map.

With the late 2008 release of They Will Surface — sounds as much like a warning as an assurance, doesn’t it? — Hyatari reemerged through Caustic Eye Productions with six extended suns that never set; each track droning its way into and out of and back into oblivion like sheets of universe crashing into each other. It is hypnotic and disturbing.

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