The main feature that damages everything a Metal genre can make is the absurd respect for models. No one said that to play this or that genre you must sound as dirty and nasty as you can, because sound filth doesn’t mean to be organic, and to bands with Old School Metal ways or into Sludge Metal tendencies doesn’t have to make things hard to be understood just because someone did it and you want to be this someone (another mistake into music: to try to be any other than yourself). And such lesson seems to be learned by the Danish trio DYING HYDRA, as heard on “Strange and Beautiful Things”.

Their music can be said as in a classic way into Sludge Metal: slow paced tempos (with a weight work on bass guitar and drums) with overdosing guitar riffs and nasty normal vocals. If one understands that Sludge Metal is a fusion of Hardcore/Punk Rock with Doom Metal, the trio goes beyond such simple conception, earning some 70s’ Hard Rock traces (as heard on the beginning of “Aurelia”), and a good melodic care on the songs, and the energy and intensity of what is shown Is truly good.

The songs were recorded and mixed by Lasse Ballade at Ballade Studios, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege. The result is a sonority that stays away from what is known as usual for Sludge Metal acts, because the sonority is heavy, abrasive and intense, but with a whole clean concept, what means that’s rough and organic, but with everything defined. And the artwork of Kacper Gilka for the cover and the additional artwork, graphics and layout by Diogo Soares (of Soares Artwork & Gargantula Creations) fits on what the band musically creates.

The band’s music is rich in many ambiences, what earn their music the label of ‘Atmospheric Sludge Metal’ (that is justified as you hear their music, besides it’s just another useless label if one reduces things to mere words), and the experience of hearing to “Lithification” (the ‘sabbathic’ groove and intense weight of the instrumental lines is filled with intense screamed vocals), “Aurelia”, “Abyssal Clocks” (the melodic ambiences are really tasty, with excellent guitar parts), “Grasping Stone”, “Into Existence” (a 10 minutes giant filled with excellent rhythmic contrasts created by bass guitar ana drums) and “Ancestral” (very good and intense guitar riffs and arrangements) will prove that they are exploring possibilities on the genre and braking limits and concepts.

Maybe the self-proclaimed Sludge Metal acts and fans must pay attention to DYING HYDRA’s music, because “Strange and Beautiful Things” can be said as a compendium of how breaking rules and expanding limits of a genre, but keeping both feet in it.