H-Division

No bombast despite the H-Factor, a killer instrumental threesome exploring the most ethereal...

     

"No bombast despite the H-Factor, a killer instrumental threesome exploring the most ethereal corners of rock idiom.
Never the one to slow down his pace - which doesn't make the man a shredder, - Hayden closely follows 2011's "Supercharger", which found the British axeman on his own, with this album set up for a trio format. Surely, the criterion for inviting bassist Adam Holt and drummer Ben Haines to the party wasn't their surnames' first letter, as there's a telepathic sympathy in the ten tracks that - save, perhaps, for the sharply focused rage of enchanting "Altitude" (shouldn't it be "Attitude"?) - can be only loosely described as "rock" only because a shadow of fusion hangs over the proceedings and peaks familiarly in "Light-Com".
Once the heavy riff of opener "Escape" gives way to notes that flutter rather than flurry over the brooding groove, a sunny vista is invoked into which "Vorcenellaraptorai" shoots a flamenco-tinctured twang. In "Azimodal Equinox", though, such a spank lies in a bass domain as the guitar steps behind the rhythm to color the gritty jive, but "Aperphelion" offers the listener a blissful electric flight across the acoustically rippling sky. Higher and higher, when it comes to "Zodiacal Apparition" the sensual soaring is somewhat undercut by the piece's motorik engine: kosmische musik it ain't, and here's the momentum gets lost, until "One Way" invites Hayden's harmonic riffola back. Powerful and imaginative work."
**** (Dmitry M. Epstein - Let It Rock)