Review: Hanin Elias – In Flames (1995-1999) (DHR CD 30)

Digital Hardcore Recordings was set up to start a revolution, to bring about radical societal change.

This is what happened on the obvious, "intellectual" level, if you want.

But I always felt there is also something different attached to it, a common thread that runs through most releases, that might exist more on an emotional or intuitive level.

A certain feeling of hope, of longing; the heartbreaking epiphany that there is no true happiness or purpose of life possible within existing society; and the burning desire to break beyond these cultural and social bonds; to experience something true and real, an adventure and thrill, and there is even more, like a whole vector of undisclosed and limitless emotions, euphoria, experience...

And it is just within reach and we would only need to reach out our hand to grab it and keep it forever... but then it all disappeared again. Was it a dream? Why did it pass? And can we... go back, and have another try at it?

To me, this did not only exist in the releases of DHR, but also in the 90s as a whole, and other media... the movies, the music, the "confused rebellion" of grunge and alternative rock... the cosmic ecstasy of the rave movement... the early cyberpunk and cyberspace craze of the internet... like an unkept promise of a new world, of unbound satisfaction... a promise that was not kept... or did we forfeit it?

And I think this album by Hanin Elias is one the releases where this feeling can be felt most prominent.

Unlike other DHR releases, there is much more focus on ambiance, on beatless tracks, on introverted passages... of strange, peculiar, enigmatic sounds... spoken words on a background of drones and strings and noises... like an intergalactic lament, inexplicably received on your headphones at 3 am in the morning while the sky is still blackened outside...

this makes it one of the highlights of the DHR catalogue for me.

but make no mistake. despite this cornucopia of subliminal beauty, it's also one of the most aggressive, bold, blood-thirsty... who is screaming wilder and louder, the drums, the distortion, or Hanin?

a real gem within the already precious catalogue of DHR.

Note: No Ai was used in writing this text.

Review taken from "About Digital Hardcore Recordings - A fan-written guidebook" - https://dhrfanbook.blogspot.com/