Bandcamp Some records tell you their entire worldview in the first ten seconds, and Hidden In Plain Sight is one of them. This is a Barcelona two-piece playing buzzsaw death-thrash straight out of the Stockholm HM-2 tradition, Entombed and Dismember and Master filtered through d-beat and Motorhead swagger, and it comes wrapped in an unambiguous stance: the band tag the record “antifascist,” and their label runs on a DIY, anti-fascist, vegan credo it has backed with an actual compilation against fascism. In a genre whose aesthetics get borrowed by bad actors more often than anyone likes, it is worth saying plainly that these are the good guys, and the music has the raised-fist energy to match.
As music it is short, fast, and gloriously unbothered with polish. Seven tracks including a scene-setting intro, gone in a little over twenty minutes, each one a single-minded rush of chainsaw guitar and hoarse, barked vocals. The buzzsaw filth is the tradition, not a defect, and nobody comes to this style for clarity, so the wall of maximally saturated fuzz is exactly what the doctor ordered. When the duo lock a riff to the d-beat and let it run, as on “Trust,” which rides a dirty, clank-heavy distorted bass and keeps a live, breathing punch even at full tilt, the record is a genuine adrenaline hit. “Rage” is the other high point, mid-compressed enough that the riff stays legible while the drums still swing.
The one real cost of the approach is that the murk sometimes eats the songs it is supposed to serve. On the densest tracks the low end collapses into a single swampy smear, the kick vanishes entirely and the cymbals turn to a harsh wash, and a couple of good riffs get buried under their own distortion rather than lifted by it. There is a difference between the productive filth of a great HM-2 record, where the grime has weight and shape, and a mix so dense it flattens the dynamics, and Hidden In Plain Sight occasionally slips from the first into the second. It is the kind of thing a second album usually fixes, once a band learns how much dirt is exactly enough.
For a debut from a two-person outfit who, by their own account, get together to jam when they can, this is a lot of fun and entirely without pretension. It is not going to convert anyone who dislikes the buzzsaw sound, and it does not care to. What it delivers is twenty minutes of fast, filthy, righteous death-thrash with a clear conscience and a clearer sense of purpose, best played at volume and taken as the short, sharp shock it is meant to be. More definition on the low end next time and this band could be genuinely nasty in the best way.
Short, fast buzzsaw death-thrash in the Stockholm HM-2 tradition, seven tracks in twenty-odd minutes, all momentum. The maximally saturated fuzz-wall is the tradition, not a fault: nobody comes to this style for clarity. It hits hardest when a riff locks to the d-beat and runs, as on “Trust,” which rides a dirty, clank-heavy distorted bass and keeps a live, breathing punch at full tilt, and “Rage,” compressed just enough that the riff stays legible while the drums swing. The real cost is that the densest tracks collapse the low end into a swampy smear, the kick vanishing and the cymbals turning to a harsh wash, so a few good riffs get buried under their own distortion rather than lifted by it. There is a line between productive HM-2 grime with weight and shape and a mix so dense it flattens the dynamics, and this occasionally crosses it. Fun, righteous, unpretentious, and one low-end tidy-up away from genuinely nasty.
Standout tracks: Trust, Rage, Fury
