Here’s an interesting fact that you won’t know, unless you read Sean’s review of their first single from this album, but Want Of Sin’s vocalist, Bliss, is a writer here at the Black Metal Archives, and a bloody good one at that.
So, I just wanted to get that out in the open so nobody can run to the comments section after they’ve read this review, as if they’ve discovered a dumbass conspiracy, and accuse us of favoritism because we covered the Want Of Sin album and not their favorite new release from some Swedish Nose Flute Metal band no bugger has ever heard of.
This is not nepotism. Want Of Sin are here on merit and because they rightly deserve to be.
Another interesting fact that I didn’t know is that, apparently, Bliss is possessed by some Extreme Metal screaming banshee that allows her to switch her vocal style on Hydrophobic between hypnotic siren who lures ships to the rocks with her dulcet tones to full-on raging demon who will strip the flesh from your bones at 1,000 paces with her gutteral roars and high pitched wails.
I think when Want Of Sin go out on tour I might have the BMA Towers exorcised, just to be safe…
Hydrophobic is a beautiful work of brutality, but you wouldn’t know that if you had never heard Want Of Sin before, as the opening track, Shroud Of Lament, is a slow spectral number, that is both wistful and bloody disturbing at the same time, full of heavy rain and minor chords that invoke memories of graveyard walks at midnight.
What? I can’t be the only person that does that, can I?
However, Shroud of Lament is just the calm before the storm because the moment it finishes and Baptism kicks in, Hydrophobic turns into a relentless assault on the senses that doesn’t stop and doesn’t let up from start to finish.
Want Of Sin don’t put a single foot wrong on Hydrophobic. The musicianship on offer is top notch, mixing Black Metal, Death Metal, and Goth across eight tracks of the most extreme headbanging music this side of Slayer in all their pomp and glory.
It is a fucking glorious display of atmosphere entwined with primal fucking energy and if you can get through this record without giving yourself whiplash, I’d be bloody surprised. Hell, I couldn’t get around my local supermarket while listening to this without scaring the other shoppers. You’d think they’d never seen a fully grown man stage diving into an broccoli display before.
I’m always on the lookout for the record that will break a band out of the underground and into the mainstream, so to speak, because while being an underground band has always been seen as being cool, it doesn’t pay the fucking bills, which leads me to an interesting personal conundrum with Hydrophobic.
As the mad genius behind the Black Metal Archives I would hate to lose a writer of Bliss’ talent, but as someone with, y’know, ears, it’s almost impossible for me to not imagine that by the end of 2025, Hydrophobic will have turned Want Of Sin into a very in demand band, with a very large touring schedule, and the promise of a new album to come.
Ah well… at least I can probably wangle a few free tickets out of them if they every come to these shores…
Head on over to the Want Of Sin Bandcamp page and check out Hydrophobic for yourself.
