Hypernova, Through The Chaos

By Matt Demers

I’m not going to lie: I volunteered to review Hypernova because of their name. I mean, as a nerd, the word “nova” has certain. . . gravitas towards it, be it for the physics reference or one of the few words to pull off the “badass v” consonant.

But I was pleasantly surprised by their new album, Through The Chaos; there were no songs that I vehemently hated on the album. This is a bit of a feat for me, as when I listen to most records there seems to be one or two tracks that stick out like sore thumbs. In the best case, they serve as annoying distractions and at worst, they can derail an entire album. An album that is cohesive as an album (thematically or otherwise) definitely wins points in my mind.

In Hypernova’s case, they produce a consistent pop-rock sound all the way through. However, I use that label hesitantly, because, well. . . listen to them!

The first thing that came to mind when I heard lead singer Raam’s voice was “Happy System of a Down, with the vocal tone a few steps up from Rammstein.” That lead singer has some bass; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He handles fast vocals well, and his band has a very solid sound behind them.

Save for Raam’s voice sticking out like a sore thumb, Hypernova is just that: solid, but nothing spectacular. This isn’t always bad thing, but it forces the vocals to be the selling point—if they’re going to veer away from that, they might need to step up their game a little bit.

Hypernova hails from New York City by way of Tehran, Iran. I enjoy the fact that they band decided not to capitalize on the whole “foreign novelty” thing, because really, unless you’re prepared to devote your entire band to a gimmick, it becomes increasingly hard to be taken seriously apart from said gimmick. I really liked this excerpt from an interview with Raam:

“All sorts of underground rock music in Iran is anti-establishment in a way, but we definitely do a lot of political themes in our music but we’re not really a political band per se. I don’t want us to be like a Rage Against the Machine type of band, I love Rage Against the Machine but man that’s not us.”

“With Hypernova we want it to be really music first and let the music speak for itself, instead of being like pigeonholed into a Persian band or political underground band. To be known as ‘they’re a good band,’ that’s what I want people to say.”

احترام بسيار, Raam. Or in English, “much respect.”

Hits: “Universal,” “Fairy Tales,” “American Dream,” “With You”

Misses (in this case, not bad songs, but kind of out of place): “Lost in Space,” “Here and Now”

Hypernova’s debut, Through The Chaos, is available now from Narnack Records. For more on the band and for links to order the album, visit Hypernova’s Official Site or MySpace page. Listen to the album all week at Spinner’s Listening Party.