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"Awakening" was album number three for these thrashers from Sweden. I have not heard any of their albums aside from this one, so this review comes from someone who has no clue what this band sounded like prior to, or after this release.

Anyway, the music here is technical thrash metal with a lot of that stop and go type of riffing that can seriously annoy someone if they have not heard it before. I find that the band plays very tight and well but they resort to far too much wankery and instrumental showmanship that only prog-morons are known to do, but at least these guys keep things heavy and aggressive throughout the album, so this isn't as bad as prog metal thankfully. But, while having some killer passages, some of these songs annoy me more than please. In addition to that, the vocals here do not fit the music at all. Several bands do the power metal vocals on top of thrash music, but in Hexenhaus' case, the product is not fitting as the vocal lines are neither grabbing, nor aggressive, nor particularly melodic or catchy. They are just there. So it almost completely lacks any kind of vocal worth.

"Awakening" is musically good overall though and anyone who enjoys technical thrash metal may find something to like in this band. But I would recommend bands like Artillery if you are looking for a relatively unknown band in this genre. Hexenhaus just don't do it….well for me anyway. And this primarily has to do with the vocals.