“Are you a friend or an enemy?” The first line on “White Noise” comes from the opener “Damned If You Do” and it basically is Haxan in a nutshell.
See, it seems to me there’s no middle ground with the three piece: Are you with them or against them? That’s your choice, but as the record goes on, its clear that it matters not what you say, they aren’t letting anything get in their way.
Hard rock the way it should be, you can tell they have had some influence from a bastard son, as it were. Todd Campbell has helped Haxan refine the songs here on this debut and it shows. Phil Campbell and The Bastard Sons understand hooks, melodies and what makes a memorable song better than most and there’s loads of that here. Buckets full, in truth.
In fact, I can pinpoint the exact moment when I realised “…Noise” was a special thing. Forgive the mundane nature of this, but I was eating my granola the other morning and found myself singing the chorus to “Killing Time” (“little do you know I was on Death Row….etc etc ). Now, I wouldn’t normally include such tedious inanity except for one thing. The exact stated aim of the band is to take people out of their normality with the power of the music. So, I am living proof.
The thing is, there’s so many things that stick in the mind over the course of these nine glorious songs. The barely suppressed violent undercurrent to “Nine Lives” for one thing, Sam Bolderson can whip up a decent riff too, by the way, and there’s a bit of Thin Lizzy in this solo for sure.
“Grave Digger” is another that kicks hard, and to be frank, the groove that is whipped up on “Louder Than Words” is almost Clutch-esque, which they top off with some fine harmonies over the words “for your information, I couldn’t care less”. All of which leads me to think that Haxan might be a band you have to see live at some point. If only to see them do “Black Sheep”, which proudly revels in their nose for trouble – and gets bonus points for starting with a solo and gets more for a bassline that is filthy.
There’s something sort of bluesy about them. “Crash and Burn” underlines that, but they switch gear to something else altogether on “Skeletons”, and something approaching metal, even on “Living Dead”. “We declare, we’ve arrived.” Sings Bolderson here. Note the wording. Whatever your opinion on the subject, Haxan have decided they’ve arrived, so they have.
A record that hasn’t got any ballads is always a good one, because most bands would have found a tenth track with some sentimental nonsense. This didn’t need one, it wouldn’t have suited them, so instead there’s nine songs of lean meanness.
Just occasionally there’s a band that comes along with a debut that sounds so fully formed that its already time to stop talking about “potential” and instead revel in the skill. Haxan are that band.
Rating 9/10
