We Are Hex – Hail the Goer

Indianapolis, IN quartet We Are Hex has a rare knack for teasing out melody from something that should otherwise sound like nails on a chalkboard.  Never shy to buck trends and just do their own thing, their fuzzy brand of female fronted indie rock should do no less than raise first time listeners’ eyebrows.  Or at least that was my reaction after being exposed to their latest release, Hail The Goer.

Never content to stick to one sound, Hail The Goer boasts a dark but ever evolving plan.  In their first track, “Birth Place Of The Mystics,” the band throws listeners into the album’s most jarring chord selections – if you can even call them that.  Instead of conventional riffs, lead guitarist Matt sounds as if stroking his guitar with a violin’s bow – that or some sort of violent, note bending combination of distortion and pedal work.  Meanwhile, vocalist Jilly fluctuates her high pitched, squeaky voice (Jaguar Love anyone?) as sporadically as one hit wonder Liam Lynch – an effect balanced only by Trevor’s cavernous bass lines.  Lyrics never really stick, but that’s probably the point.

At other times, things get a little more familiar, but no less foreign.  For example, the title track tries leashing some of their rambunctious attitude, but thankfully comes across a pleasing few screws loose, although “Gold/Silver” might serve as what could be termed the closest thing We Are Hex comes to taming the beast.  In “Singer/Tastemaker” the group flexes their atmospheric muscles when recreating and subtly dropping what sounds like a quintessential haunted house soundtrack smack into the middle of Hail The Goer’s slowest song – again, keeping things just off kilter enough to keep their audience guessing.  It’s these moments that make the album worthwhile, even if the whole affair sounds a little off kilter.

As one might expect, all this experimentation can make We Are Hex sound a little self-indulgent at times.  While not a terribly prominent fault, the crawling, reverberating and out of tune nature of tracks like “Don’t Let The Dirt In Here” drag and linger far past their welcome, feeling as if simply pushing boundaries for the sake of pushing boundaries, rather than attempting to engage the listener.

Filled with tempo shifts, sporadic chord changes, and a roving cast of influences that always seem just out of reach (I can’t quite pin any good parallels down), We Are Hex proves always interesting, and at the very least, certainly never boring.  True, they can be a little agitating from time to time, but so is the cost of creativity.  It’s the type of album that requires an open mind, but always offers a reward for those staying the course.  So if you’re an indie or rock fan looking for a change of pace Hail The Goer has you covered.