Essential Albums On Essential Labels #2: Hydra Head Records

Hydra Head Records founder Aaron Turner announced his label’s “imminent demise” in October 2012. His statement announcing the closure is a downbeat read that talks of an “imbalance between creative ideals and financial realities,” “personal problems amongst the label operators,” and “a self-induced whirlwind of chaos.” While Turner is rightly proud of his “rewarding and meaningful” project and expresses deep gratitude to all those who supported the label, his statement’s tone is rather inglorious, and stands in stark contrast to Hydra Head’s myriad accomplishments.

It’s a deep shame that the label seems to have died such a brutal death. Hydra Head had been Turner’s baby since he was in high school, when it first operated as a mail order service and local distro. Turner has spoken of “a dearth of sources for more obscure underground stuff where I was living at the time (Santa Fe, NM)” which led him to start distributing releases from labels such as Ebullition Records and booking local shows before moving on to releasing original works. Hydra Head put out its first release in 1995: a seven inch by hardcore band Vent, and within just two years began working with soon-to-be notable acts such as Piebald, Today Is The Day, and Converge.

It’s easy to look back on Hydra Head’s legacy and be shocked by how many epochal works landed in such a short space of time. The year 2000 alone saw the label releasing Botch’s We Are The Romans, Discordance Axis’ The Inalienable Dreamless, and Cave In’s Jupiter. The relatively short period of time that Hydra Head existed in (the bulk of their output was released in a fifteen-year period between 1998 and 2012) belies their discography’s sheer volume of quality. From cornerstones of what would become known as post-metal (including Pelican and Turner’s own Isis [the band]) to sludge and stoner metal (Cavity and Torche) to noise (Merzbow), black metal (Xasthur, Heresi) and even experimental hip-hop (Dälek), Hydra Head were relentless in their commitment to releasing all forms of boundary-pushing extreme music.

In his statement announcing the label’s closure, Turner seems almost surprised that Hydra Head lasted as long as it did. Given the aforementioned “whirlwind of chaos,” the changes that the music industry underwent in the 00’s, and the challenging and non-commercial nature of the label’s acts, it’s retrospectively clear that Hydra Head was never going to last forever. However, amidst the melancholy and frank descriptions of financial troubles, Turner also discusses his fortune to have worked with numerous acts who “have made indelible impressions in the underground.” This is perhaps Hydra Head’s ultimate legacy and the reason why the label is today remembered as a pivotal institution in the development of the last few decades of heavy music.

The following list attempts to chart the chronological course of Hydra Head’s discography via its essential albums. All are epochal, and make for a compelling account of the progression of extreme metal at the turn of the millennium.

…

Cave In—Until Your Heart Stops (1998)

Among the many great cult albums buried in Hydra Head’s back catalog is Cave In’s debut Until Your Heart Stops. Recorded with Kurt Ballou at God City Studios, the young Massachusetts band actually wrote the album while re-recording older tracks for their Beyond Hypothermia compilation. This convoluted writing method is evident in Until Your Heart Stops‘ endearingly ramshackle construction. Shifts in tone and musical ideas abound, chopping and changing at abrupt junctures. It’s rarely elegant, but almighty tracks like “Juggernaut” and “Until Your Heart Stops (Segue 2)” showcase Cave In’s grand ambitions and point towards their eclectic future.

…

…

Botch—We Are The Romans (1999)

Over twenty years on from its release, Botch’s We Are The Romans continues to enthrall and excite. The Washington band’s second studio album is a work of savage modernism, defined by sharp angles, lack of ornamentation and minimal materials. By 1999, Botch were a well-oiled machine, but had only a week to record what would go on to be their penultimate collection of studio recordings. This gives We Are The Romans a remarkable sense of urgency, as if the band’s brains are on fire, desperately unleashing all of the brilliant ideas in their heads. This perfect blend of original and cohesive song craft, solid production and raw execution coalesces to make We Are The Romans the first masterpiece released on Hydra Head.

…

…

Isis—Celestial (2000)

Isis’ towering debut Celestial kicked off the post-metal pioneers’ flawless run of landmark albums. Each full-length is stellar, with Celestial the most muscular and imposing. It’s the coldest Isis album; tracks like “Glisten” and “Deconstructing Towers” are packed with steely, metallic textures and distortion that crackles like static. Isis would go on to craft more elemental soundscapes rife with delicacy and melody, and parts of Celestial hint at this, however, as a whole, this is Isis at their most brutal and gritty. Following this album they would sign with Ipecac Records, however their sole Hydra Head release is a jewel in the label’s crown.

…

…

Discordance Axis—The Inalienable Dreamless (2000)

An album that’s frequently referenced in the discussion over the artistry of grindcore, The Inalienable Dreamless is 24 minutes of frantic carnage undercut with an intuitive and nuanced sense of creativity. Discordance Axis cite the influence of the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime/manga series as well as the literature of Phillip K. Dick on the album’s themes, which reveal the (very 90s) breadth of conceptual influence that Jon Chang and company utilized in service of making The Inalienable Dreamless such a thoughtful work of extreme metal. The album is so expertly executed that it turns the grindcore genre into something transcendent, and as compellingly challenging as it is wholly singular.

…

…

Cavity—On The Lam (2001)

A key band in sludge metal’s development, Cavity’s sticky, bluesy, and nasty sonic aesthetic helped to define the genre alongside fellow southern metallers Eyehategod, Buzzov*en and Weedeater. The year 2001’s On The Lam is the Miami band’s finest hour: nine tracks of kinetic and sweat-drenched sludge that’s as viscerally gripping as it is willfully mean-spirited. Cavity’s career was defined by numerous lineup and label changes, however their sole Hydra Head release captures the band firing on all cohesive cylinders. Cavity would go on to play in Floor, Torche, and Black Cobra, though rarely would any of those excellent bands manage to capture anything as raw or effortless as On The Lam.

…

…

Knut—Challenger (2002)

Among the strongest bands to have come out of the millennium-era technical sludge boom (see also: Harkonen, Keelhaul and Cable for similar bands on Hydra Head), Switzerland’s Knut are a somewhat underrated proposition, particularly their blistering second album Challenger. Across nine tracks of discordant brutality, the band blend mathcore, grindcore and sludge into something warped and obtuse—math metal with all the spikes and angles shorn down into something lumpen and belligerent. Album highlight “El Niño” is an all-time great track from this era of metal, and Challenger deserves to be similarly hailed alongside it.

…

…

Pelican—Australasia (2003)

Pelican’s mode of instrumental metal can on occasion (such as 2007’s City Of Echoes) feel a little undercooked. However, when they get it right (like their 2003 debut Australasia), it lands with immense force and feeling. Tonally aligned with the expansive soundscapes of labelmates Isis,Australasia captures Pelican at their most spacious and exhilarating. As they’ve proved across their career, striving to achieve maximum, pummeling brutality isn’t really their thing, and even here, on what is nominally their rawest and heaviest album, an ear for driving melodies always rises above the head-bangable and kinetic grooves.

…

…

Xasthur—Subliminal Genocide (2006)

One of the few black metal projects released on Hydra Head (see also: more obscure fare from Heresi and Nihill), Xasthur needs little introduction to US black metal fans. The main project of Scott “Malefic” Connor, Xasthur’s murky, lo-fi musical approach is thrillingly encapsulated by 2006’s Subliminal Genocide. It’s a raw, piercing, and ear-shredding release, even by the savage standards of lo-fi black metal. Xasthur’s sonic landscape is one of great, almost gnostic opacity — check out “Beauty Is Only Razor Deep”’s unnerving angelic choirs and “Pyramid Of Skulls'” sinister ambience. Though bleak, these songs are masterfully executed and represent all that mysterious, misanthropic black metal is capable of.

…

…

Big Business—Here Come The Waterworks (2007)

On the distant other end of the tonal spectrum is Big Business’ outrageously fun Here Comes The Waterworks. The Seattle band are a wonderfully idiosyncratic proposition, and their second album on Hydra Head is their definitive work of oddball stoner metal. The album overflows with charisma, most evident in the anthemic “Hands Up,” the gigantic “Grounds For Divorce,” and the hypnotic “I’ll Give You Something To Cry About.” Everything about the album works, which all derives from Big Business’ unquantifiable charm, their ability to inject their energetic but familiar stoner/sludge metal with presence, pathos, and just the right amount of quirkiness.

…

…

Jesu—Conqueror (2007)

Driven by hazy textures, swirling vocals and a trudging rhythm section, Jesu’s Conqueror is a glorious march through misty, forlorn sonic territories. Justin Broadrick’s second album as Jesu, his most prolific post-Godflesh project, Conqueror draws as much from the slowcore of early Low as it does the dreamy shoegaze of Cocteau Twins and oneiric sludge metal of Neurosis. Its guitars blur together in a viscous mush of distortion, overlaid by melancholic synths and Broadrick’s heartfelt vocals. It’s despondent, beautiful, and crushingly heavy, best exemplified by the engrossing title track and towering centerpiece “Weightless & Horizontal.” This is metal that, rather than impressing with its viscerality, weighs oppressively on the heart and soul.

…

…

Harvey Milk—Life… The Best Game In Town (2008)

Harvey Milk are perhaps the definition of a “cult” band. The Athens, Georgia, band have carved out an unconventional career defined by hiatuses and obscurity, playing a concoction of sludge, noise rock, and blues that’s as singular as it is riveting. Their Hydra Head debut Life…The Best Game in Town is the then four-piece’s finest hour, full of hallowed, doom-leaden blues metal that contains immense depths of feeling. Blending the sensibilities of High On Fire, The Jesus Lizard, Baroness, and ZZ Top, Life…The Best Game in Town is a dream hybrid for fans of the uglier and artier side of blues-influenced rock.

…

…

Torche—Meanderthal (2008)

Though Hydra Head bands are known as purveyors of wilfully experimental and often portentous metal, Miami’s Torche instead craft sharp, simple, upbeat sludge pop (to use their preferred term) majesty. Their sole Hydra Head full-length was the band’s breakthrough release, featuring Torche’s signature breezy track lengths, powerful vocal melodies, and adroit harnessing of the inherent joy to be found in loud, downtuned guitars. Brilliantly produced by Kurt Ballou, Meanderthal is one of the most immediately likable and almost-disarmingly approachable albums ever released in the stoner and sludge genres, and is easily one of Hydra Head’s crowning achievements.

…

…

Pyramids & Nadja—Pyramids with Nadja (2009)

A more “traditional” Hydra Head release (if such a thing exists), Pyramids With Nadja is a dense and challenging ambient metal album that fuses Nadja’s droning atmospherics, Pyramids’ impressionistic black metal and some intriguing guest collaborations, including the vocal talents of Mineral’s Chris Simpson. These four tracks (each of which run at between ten and 20 minutes) are impenetrable musical forests swirling with hazy textures, mountainous guitars and vocals that dribble and drift like the icy stream of the album’s cover. Entering the thick foliage will leave you lost and more than a little dazed, but its beauty, wonder and danger will also take your breath away.

…

…

Old Man Gloom—NO (2012)

Released near the end of Hydra Head’s remarkable oeuvre, NO feels a bit like a victory lap. Comprised of Aaron Tuner, Cave In’s Caleb Scofield, Converge’s Nate Newton, and Zozobra’s Santos Montano (three of whom had previously released works on Hydra Head) Old Man Gloom’s post-metal/noise fusion is best epitomized by the muscular and desperate NO. From the titanic “To Carry The Flame” to the tension-fuelled “Shadowed Hand” to the acoustic guitar-driven “Crescent,” NO is a confident and commanding work in possession of a palpable and invigorating sense of artistic freedom.

…

…

Oxbow—Thin Black Duke (2017)

Hydra Head’s final release (as of 2021): Oxbow’s long-gestating Thin Black Duke supposedly (and bafflingly) had trouble finding a label. Aaron Turner then agreed to release it, even though the label had ceased releasing new albums back in 2012. If this is to be the final Hydra Head album, what a way to bow out. Thin Black Duke is a straight-up masterpiece, a wholly singular work of experimental rock that’s as captivating as it is impossible to describe. The San Francisco band poured all of their immense musicianship and palpable soul into the album, culminating in one of the most transcendent rock albums released this side of the millennium.

…

…