Hella - There's No 666 in Outer Space

Math rock and progressive supremes Hella are back at it again with their latest release, “There’s No 666 in Outer Space”, which was released January 30th. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Hella, they are a group from Sacramento, California consisting of two main members: Zach Hill on drums and Spencer Seim on guitar. Their lineup has changed over their nearly 6 year life span. On “…666…”, Hella features the talents of Aaron Ross on vocals, Josh Hill on rhythm guitar, and Carson McWhirter on bass guitar. With intense and speedy drumming, along with unusual, “nintendo-esque”, guitarmanship, Hella has developed an extremely unique sound with influences dating back to early Primus and a number of jam bands.

There’s no real way to describe the feeling the listener receives when listening to Hella. It’s an extremely acquired taste, for one thing. What some may find beautiful and genius, others may find noise and garbage. For this reason alone, “There’s No 666 in Outer Space” should be approached with caution.

What can’t be argued about this album is the vast range of genres covered in Hella’s unique sound. With the inclusion of a new vocalist, many new connections can be made to the band. When Ross’ voice is heard, the mind drifts to the thoughts of what a more aggressive Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta would sound like. The instrumentals, too, can remind some of The Mars Volta. But there’s something special about this new sound Hella offers. Influences of jazz fusion and avant-garde psychedelia are noticeably apparent throughout the album. With extremely complex time signatures and layers upon layers of random sound effects and instruments included in the mix, Hella’s well illustrated sound can easily overwhelm some.

Hella hasn’t failed to give the listeners an intense and operatic hour of tunes. But an emphasis must be made on how some will just hate this sound. Hella is notorious for their non-radio-friendly sound and bizarre musical antics. One writer’s opinion can’t express an overall consensus for how many stars this album should be given or whether it’s thumbs up or thumbs down.

In conclusion, “There’s No 666 in Outer Space” is an album worth buying, but no one is guaranteed to love it. Their sound is most definitely not for everyone, but to simply ignore a band like this because of their unusual sound would be an extremely foolish move. You have been warned.

OVERALL: RECOMMENDED TO THOSE WITH PATIENCE AND AN OPEN MIND
HIGHLIGHT: TRACK 6, “HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE”