Review: Hypnagone – Qu’il Passe

Style: Progressive Metal, Modern Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Cynic, Textures, The Contortionist
Review by: Christopher
Country: France
Release date: 14 October, 2022

Prog metal can be a rather nebulous term. Haken, Between the Buried and Me, Tool, and Opeth are all prog metal groups but without the qualification of sub-genre tags such an overarching term tells you little about their individual sounds. Hence, the need for further tags like trad, death, alt, core, etc. Fortunately, some bright spark solved this problem by coming up with the term “Modern Metal” which, according to last.fm, is “an Umbrella term, usually used for bands with a more “modern”, current sound. Genres considered part of Modern metal include melodic death metal, metalcore, cyber metal, djent and sometimes progressive metal.” 

Well, that’s no help. 

Perhaps Hypnagone, a self-described Modern Metal group out of France, can shed some light on what the term means. Their debut Qu’il Passe (which translates roughly as “it passes”, although other translations are possible) combines the atmospheric, jazz-inflected sound of Cynic with the complex yet catchy metalcore of Textures, and adds a splash of The Contortionist or VOLA’s ambient djenting for good measure. A thematic journey through loneliness, Qu’il Passe is loosely set within a concrete jungle surrounded by nature. That sense of entrapment within a rigidly structured society and the consequent yearning for some inarticulable freedom is evoked by the oubliette of girders in the cover art, a montage of Brutalist architecture taken by bassist and main composer Antoine Duffour.

With jazzy polyrhythms, gleaming choruses, and proggy interspersions of chaotic metal, Hypnagone are an extremely dynamic band, moving from torrential heaviness into more melodic sections at the drop of a hat. Adrien Duffour’s vocals are versatile, with metalcore invective in his harshes, gruff cleans that remind me of Textures’ Daniël de Jongh and softer tones that recall Chris Hathcock of The Reticent. Naturally the jazzier side of their sound is driven by the Cynic inspired fretless bass work which is deeply impressive, and the other members clearly know their way around jazz. “L’Arbre” sees the band at their jazziest, almost in Exivious territory, while a sax sings a haunting lament on “White Fields” before becoming caught up in the jazz metal affray.

However, at sixty-five minutes, Qu’il Passe is long, and it feels long. The ten minutes of ambient music are first for the hypothetical chopping block: “Arrival” is a lovely intro, but we don’t need two more ambient tracks (“Elegy” and closing number “Light Bulb”). Hypnagone’s sound is tight; it doesn’t benefit from these interruptions in flow, and while I appreciate that these ambient songs serve Qu’il Passe’s themes, it doesn’t complement their sound at large. If Hypnagone wish to continue playing with ambience, they need to interweave it into tracks—and across the record as a whole—more effectively. 

I still don’t know whether “Modern metal” is a useful genre tag but its nebulousness is perhaps an appropriate companion to the contradictory “disparate influences yet tight product” sensibility that defines Hypnagone’s sound. The combination of prog, jazz, and metalcore blends seamlessly into something fresh, and the talent displayed here is exceptional. While Qu’il Passe’s sheer length and ambient forays hold it back, this is a small quibble, because it’s an incredibly solid debut from a collection of musicians for whom the sky’s the limit. 

Recommended tracks: The Mind Derailed, L’Arbre, Shibboleth
You may also like: Exivious, Effuse
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Hypnagone is:
– Adrien Duffour (vocals)
– Yann Roy (guitars)
– Antoine Duffour (bass)
– Jérôme “Jackou” Binder (drums)