Hashem

Martyr

Hashem’s new EP, Martyr, has everything you’d want from a death metal band. Their dark sound flows throughout the whole EP; from start to finish, it’s a brutal piece of work. It will make any metalhead want to headbang along with it.

Martyr is full of lightning-fast double bass, blast beats, growling and guttural vocals and shredding guitars. It’s the perfect recipe for metal. This album stayed pretty relentless throughout, but wasn’t so fast and fierce it became tasteless. There were parts that sounded like the technicality of As I Lay Dying, but with haunting guitar leads and creepy sound effects in the background made it Hashem’s distinct sound.

The band did a great job at keeping their songs dynamic with some breakdowns, not just having steady double bass the entire EP. Their songs weren’t too “math-y,” either, but they did have some fun playing with time signatures on it. There were blatant references to Christian symbolism throughout the lyrics, and it didn’t have many slow parts. It stayed interesting, and, more importantly, it stayed fast.

Martyr is a solid release that is an impressive addition to the Christian metal scene. It’s fast. It’s heavy. It shreds. Hashem gets down to business immediately and keeps kicking until the end. Go pick it up and growl along.