Erik Hinds - Reign In Blood (2005)Solponticello

Mr. Hinds a.k.a. Iam Killick of Athens (Georgia in the USA) is an unusual personality indeed. His music is inspired by folk, heavy metal, sacred music, and all these genres pour together into a creation called Appalachian Trance Metal as Erik describes his own style. This American has cooperated with the likes of Klaus Janek Caspar, Kyle Dawkins, Julie Powell, The Georgia Guitar Quartet, Jeremiah Cymerman and others.

He is famous for his eccentric instruments like a quartertone electric guitar and the H'arpeggione that is an upright guitar with 12 sympathetic strings or devil cello as its player calls a spade a spade. Obviously, he commited many crimes with this devilish instrument, but the police can't catch him to the present, since all of them were musical offences like solo attempted murders - "Cerebus" (2002) or "Khonsay" (2003), haha! Since they were too boring for Mr. Hinds, he turned to suicide bids. Its first attempt turned out to be an acoutic version of Slayer's "Reign In Blood" (1986). All of ten suicidal tracks were performed on aforementioned H'arpeggione. Can you imagine it yourself? If Slayer's original album is too extreme for some of you, there is an alternative prepared by Erik. Yeah, I venture to write that Mr. Hinds recorded a light version of that release. His interpretation of "Reign In Blood" is experimental, avantgarde, twisted, unconventional, anti-radio, uncommercial, folk-inspired, a bit psychedelic and chaotic at some excerpts. While listening to this stuff, everyone should be careful not to fall into the abyss. Thanks to H'arpeggione sound, you can have an impression that Hinds' music is dark, sinister, bleak and disturbing.

Having a voice over all these tunes, I am pretty sure that fans of Apocalyptica's "Plays Metallica By Four Cellos" and "Inquisition Symphony" should be pleased with Erik's musical concept, since he managed to gain a similar effect. Of course, it can seem to be strange and freaky a little bit, but it was an American's intention for sure. For ignorant people, H'arpeggione's sound will be a simple "sandpaper", however for open-minded ones - a memorable experience. It is a kind of music that requires an intellectual engagement from the listener.