Hexadiode

Every now and again you stumble upon a rare find, a brand new band that has seemingly come out of nowhere and dropped a debut album that is completely awesome. Lets all welcome Hexadiode to the fold. A remarkable find for me, Hexadiode are a US duo based out of Dayton, Ohio, adhering to a philosophy of old-school flavoured electro-industrial rooted in FLA territory with a touch of EBM to boot.

Breaking News: IBEX is a gem. It’s full of rock solid beats, complex and intricate programming and distinctly dark, angry vocals.

Opening the album is “Synchrocidal” and straight away its quite clear that we’re in special territory – the quality of the songwriting here is outstanding, the chorus is huge. “Breaking It Whole” is another quality melodic track, aggressive in tone, the chorus again is epic. “Contamination” is an analogue beast, built to destroy. Fantastic stuff. “Hexon Shift” is a groove machine, mechanical and cold. Another highlight is “Rive”, with its contorting, noisy analogue synths triggering your brain synapses into overload. Closing the album are two remixes, the first being labelmates Protectorate’s version of “Synchrocidal” and the other being Txtbeak’s take on “Breaking It Whole”, both solid. Pro-tip: keep an eye out for Protectorate’s debut album later this year.

This album is essential listening for all self-respecting rivetheads out there. Highly recommended for all Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy, Front 242 and Nine Inch Nails fans. - Damned Industrial

Tim Krug und Jonas Miseh, das sind die Namen der Musiker hinter dem Namen Hexadiode. Die zwei Herren aus den USA, stehen definitiv auf die klassischen Elektrobands wie Front 242, Skinny Puppy und Frontline Assembly. Dies hört man dem Debutalbum „Ibex“ dann auch deutlich an. Hexadiode spielen mit den „alten“ Sound und interpretieren diese gekonnt in einen eigenen Klangkosmos. US Industrial trifft belgischen EBM, gewürzt mit einer Prise Wahnsinn.
Der Klang den uns Hexadiode da verkaufen wollen, ist alles andere als Stromlinienförmig. Mit sehr eigenwilligen Sounds gespickt und überraschenden Elementen, stürmt der Opener „Synchrocidal“ los. Die wahre Leistung des Duo`s besteht darin die Songs dennoch durchaus tanzbar und mit einem hohem Wiedererkennungswert zu versehen. Das gelingt beim Opener alleine schon durch den Refrain. „Breaking it Whole“ z.B. ist um einiges aggressiver und schräger, aber erneut mit einem fantastischen Chorus gesegnet. „Subatomic“ schleppt sich musikalisch, schwerfällig aus den Lautsprechern. Im Kontrast dazu, sind die Shouts in der Nähe von Hip/Hop Shouts anzusiedeln.
„Hexagon Shift“ ist ein verdammtes Rhythmusmonster. „Rive“ könnte auch eine frühe Front 242 Demoversion eines bislang unbekannten Songs sein.
Fans von den bereits erwähnten Bands, werden ihre helle Freude an diesem Debut haben. Spontan fällt mir da noch Fektion Fekkler oder Mentallo And The Fixer ein. Hexadiode werden nicht die Szene Charts stürmen und auch nicht für volle Tanzflächen sorgen. Dafür sind die Songs viel zu sperrig. Doch für den „Zuhausehörer“ öffnen sich ungeahnte Soundlandschaften.
Das Debutalbum von Hexadiode ist eines der Alben, welches mich wieder daran erinnert warum ich hier eigentlich für den Soundcheck schreibe. Ohne dies wäre ich vermutlich nie mit dieser Band in Kontakt gekommen und das wäre ein Verlust gewesen. - Uselinks

Italy’s EKProduct puts out a ton of music from artists spanning the globe, often times hipping us to new acts from our own shores we hadn’t heard of yet. Latest entry in that file is Dayton Ohio’s Hexadiode, a hardware oriented act in the electro-EBM vein. EKP will be releasing their first album this summer (featuring remixes from Cardinal Noire and Textbeak), but the two songs they currently have up on their Soundcloud give a solid impression of their style; pleasingly old school with maybe a bit of Interlace on the vocals? Not bad, not bad, be keeping an ear on this act for certain. - I Die You Die

Upon listening to HEXADIODE's Ibex, any old-school industrial enthusiast would immediately recognize the influence Skinny Puppy holds over this duo based in Dayton, Ohio. They do list the legendary electro-industrial act as an influence as well as Front 242, NIN, and Nitzer Ebb. Then again I don't think there are many musicians in the industrial scene who aren't influenced by these acts in one way or another. Needless to say, members Tim Krug and Jonas Miseh are using the bleak background of their city to create Electro-Industrial Hardware Warfare. If they don't use that as a tag on one of their future records, I'm going to be disappointed because I was quite proud of myself for creating that phrase in a matter of two seconds.

Anyway Ibex is their debut album out on EK Product and spans twelve tracks with two of those being remixes from Protectorate and Textbeak. Right off the bat with Synchrocidal any person who has a love for boots, stompy EBM, and well executed electronic programming will fall in love with HEXADIODE. It's not overproduced, it's not shoddy quality; it's a beautiful mixture of both. There's a little old-school quality while maintaining modern production values and keeps everything neat and clean.

The lyrics are aggressive, sometimes growling, sometimes softer, but they never hold back anything that HEXADIODE has to say. 'Turn to Zero' is a real industrial anthem and will really put you into an industrial factory setting. Now, once you settle into the album and get your jaw off the floor, a bunch of the songs such as 'Breaking It Whole', 'Contamination', 'Hexon Shift', 'Rive', and 'Computronium' will continue to bring you back to an era of old-school industrial that has long since passed but lives on thanks to guys such as HEXADIODE.

'Subatomic' is a very stripped down song in comparison to the others with less layers and effects, while 'Inversion' is the one and only track on the album that's softer and much more harmonic than the rest. It comes as quite a shock, but is a welcome two and a half minute breather track. The oddest song on the album is 'Delta Film' which takes queues from dark ambient music. Just imagine what a haunted eight track would sound like with whispers from HEXADIODE and the sounds of flies whirring in the air spewing out of it, and you have what 'Delta Film' essentially sounds like.

Protectorate's remix of 'Synchrocidal' kept the overall mood of the original album's theme of keeping it old school. They made the song louder and synth heavier, both of which were welcome additions. Textbeak's remix of 'Breaking it Whole' made the track speedier, input some more bass here and there, and put an emphasis on drum'n'bass throughout the duration of the remix. Both excellent remixers on an already excellent album.

A lot of people like to claim that the industrial scene clings onto the past too much and never likes to move forward. I say fuck those people because taking influence from the past is what makes the future better than ever. HEXADIODE is a pure example of that and Ibex is amazing. This is definitely a record I'm gonna want on my shelf. - Brutal Resonance