EP Review: Every Hour Kills – Vacua (Self Released)

Every Hour Kills, from Calgary, Canada, has a reputation for putting out solid, immersive EPs and creatively artistic music videos. Their latest work “Vacua” is expanding on their trademark sound, albeit it’s a twisted, heavier version than what fans have got used to over the years. This new release will see a new vocalist in the form of Jei Doublerice (Abiogenesis, Despite Exile, Sensory Amusia) and with his inclusion; EHK does away with a lot of the melody and clean vocals, swapping them for brutal breakdowns and turbulent vocals.

Acknowledging that this new EP might not be for everyone, founder, guitarist, and producer Sacha Laskow says:

As lucky as I am to still have work and my basic needs met, the emotional rollercoaster still affected me strongly and I ended up unemployed for a period in 2020, and thus this EP was born. It is both more human in that I collaborated more strongly with new songwriters and Jei on vocals, but also more mechanical as I also wrote with the assistance of AI creation tools, and most of the instrumentation is programmed MIDI. I feel like this is my most honest work as a writer, to express what comes to mind rather than fit into a box or template of what Every Hour Kills ‘should’ sound like. It may alienate some people but so be it!

Divisive? How can such a frenzy of technical metal be divisive? Every Hour Kills might be ‘doing something different’ but what this EP produces is thoroughly enjoyable. Five tracks (although one is more of an intro than anything else) of blistering and scathing heaviness. One with unrestrained vehemence at its core but also one with more than one star.

Yes, the vocals are simply phenomenal and add so much aggression to the hysterical instrumentation. Hysterical or panicked or frantic or whatever… pick your word, Vacua has it in the bucketloads. Though that doesn’t mean it’s unfocused or messy. For example; the title track has a much calmer tempo but is beastly to the ears and the following Tenebrous really lets clean singing shine.

The cathartic nature of this EP really comes through strongly and even if this isn’t the long-term plan for Every Hour Kills, it will certainly go down as one to remember.

Every Hour Kills – Vacua Full Track Listing:

1. Palindrome
2. Euclidian
3. Vacua
4. Tenebrous
5. Intransigent

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