Hydra Premiere From Light to the Abyss Live Session
At this point in the pandemic, I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this you’ve watched a ‘live stream’ of one sort or another, whether that’s actually a band playing live as it goes out or a special airing of a prior-recorded performance or set. And I feel safe making that assumption because it’s been 10 months, we’ve all had a lot of time at home, and my social media feed has been filled with people increasingly wistful in their “I miss live shows” posts. Myself included.
Well, Hydra, from Pleszew, Poland, released their first album, From Light to the Abyss, through Piranha Music this past August. Only together for about a year before issuing the five-tracker, the band quickly prove with it that they’ve got their heads together when it comes to knowing what they want to do in doom rock and classic, darker-tinged rolling riffage. Wearing their Iommi on their collective sleeve, the band’s songs move between the catchy, almost Uncle Acid-ic “No One Loves Like Satan” to the more oldschool doom of “Secrets of the Undead,” with guitarist Dabek (there’s an ogonek on the ‘a’ his name I can’t get to show up in WordPress, and for that I apologize) and bassist Vanat sharing vocal duties atop the steady progression filled out by guitarist Mieszko and drummer Yahoo. They ask little of the listener in terms of indulgences, riff righteously and very clearly came into their debut knowing what they wanted to accomplish in terms of sound. If you can’t respect that, I’ve got nothing for you.
In addition to the five cuts from From Light to the Abyss itself, the live session premiering in its 47-minute entirety below also includes the new song “The Unholy Ceremony,” which finds the four-piece ranging into including keys for the first time, already showing a propensity for growth and moving forward from the album, which again, has been out for about three months. The video and audio were recorded at their own Acoustic Studio, which might well be named for the tiles of the drop ceiling situated directly above the band as they play. There are three or four cameras working throughout, the audio is pro-shop, and the band are situated with their amps isolated and Yahoo positioned somewhere that I can’t even tell if he’s facing the other three or somewhere else entirely. He gets his own camera and earns it through his play.
So you’ve seen live steams. Fine. Probably you’ve seen one for a band you already know, maybe that you miss seeing on stage. Here’s a chance to do that other great thing that live music lets you do, and that’s discover something cool you might not have encountered before. I’m not about to tell you Hydra are a genre revolution — they’re not — but they’re a band who wanted to make a racket and they’re doing exactly that here. If that doesn’t get you through to the killer nod at the outset of “Magical Mind” in the video below, chances are it’s your own loss.
Because the songs of From Light to the Abyss are presented out of order, and because it’s a cool record, I’ve included the full album stream from Bandcamp at the bottom of this post as well. Some comment from Vanat and more background follows the clip itself.
Please enjoy:
Hydra, From Light to the Abyss live session at Acoustic Studio premiere
Vanat (bass) on From Light to the Abyss live session:
“During the past few months many of our shows have been cancelled. We really missed playing live and so we got inspired to record a live stream. We had many ideas on how to present our material on the web but we finally settled on recording a full show in our studio (Acoustic Studio) where we have also recorded our first album. We wanted it to sound properly which would be hard to achieve without professional support. The space in the studio was quite small but with the help of our friend Szymon we managed to create a nice video.
“Even though we cannot play many concerts right now, we keep on working. We have recently came up with a new single “The Unholy Ceremony” which will probably appear on the next album, but you can already hear this one on the live stream. In this track we maintain our classic style but we also used a synthesizer for the first time to give it a different vibe.”
Recorded at Acoustic Studio by Marcel Kraszkiewicz
https://www.acousticstudio.pl/
Pictures & VFX by Szymon Szpunt
https://www.instagram.com/szpuntoo/
Setlist:
00:00 – Creatures of the Woods
08:10 – No One Loves Like Satan
15:03 – Secrets of the Undead
21:52 – The Unholy Ceremony (NEW!)
30:06 – When the Devil’s Coming Down
38:15 – Magical Mind
HYDRA was formed in 2019 in Pleszew, the hometown of the beautiful stoner doom RED SMOKE FESTIVAL. The band consists of Vanat (bass), Yahoo (drums), Mieszko (guitar) and Dabek (guitar & vocal), who is also well known from another Polish act – Red Scalp.
Piranha Music, an independent label from Toru?, released their full-length debut, “From Light to the Abyss,” on 21 August 2020. The amazing album artwork was designed by Pawel Mioduchowski (of almighty Dopelord).
Hydra is:
Dabek – voc, git
Mieszko – git
Vanat – bass, voc
Yahoo – drums
