Alright, what pitch-black kettle of fish did we catch ourselves here? Out of the smoke-infested Northern reaches of the Baltics emerge some sickly circus sounds. That said, the circus theme in metal is nothing new, of course. It is, more often than not, all about the old tropes of the evil clown, which have been en vogue since Stephen King killed the market with his novel ‘IT’ decades ago. What better figure to scare the bejeesus out of you than a not-so benign paintface?
Now, here we’re faced with a whole gaggle of them. A noisy, beetlejuice-infested chaos troupe that’s trying to get our attention, and they tried hard for a while. Well, it’s gonna be difficult to sway the RMR crew’s bad take on this type of ‘genre’. The Review Desk had its fair share of poorly executed experimental out-of-the-box pieces. So, convince us, Tardigrade Inferno.
Hush – a record made by a funky bunch, methinks. Here’s to the kind of disconcerting wares, landing just outside of the ‘sane realms’ other bands purport to operate in. This is where the Alternative meets Psychedelic Metal in a wild whirlwind of soundbites, frazzled samples, and hazardously written songs. The band now calls their style ‘avant-garde’. But the RMR crew begs to differ. The former description, Dark Cabaret Metal, sounds much better, even if the damned circus is no more. But whatever the reasons behind the new direction may be, this new style led to some treacherous controversy. Judging by some of the opinions I had the pleasure of perusing on a number of opinion pieces.
The sound of the burning circus on the intro, The Final Show, is barely over, and already Hush roars into a typical pandemonium of samples with outrageously lopsided themes and melodies. And immediately, funky instruments such as the kazoo surface yet again, same as they did on former offerings.1 It is noteworthy how they use the clock to instigate drama with the ominous little horror music melody that is to be repeated later toward the end. For one instant, I thought Tardigrade Inferno would go down the complicated road Examinis2 went a few years ago3. But it was only a fleeting mirage, finally.
Clownish mayhem is their thing, though. And this is what they live to the fullest with a ton of exuberant energy. In a way, Hush takes the Rammstein‘s stomp and the freaky musings of Korn, mixes well, and regurgitates into a place of ruins and burning ashes where the clowns run amok.4 But to elaborate more, let’s visit some of the tracks, shall we?
Dead Fish Smile gave us the shivers, and not in a good way. Tardigrade Inferno serve their darkest, deepest goth sloth here, garnished with a neat scratchy solo to egg you on. The infectious groove that covers the track like some blood-red gravy is too tasty to just glace over. But the creepy lyrics truly reminded us of musical wares wafting our way from the East before the iron curtain finally fell 37 years ago. The RMR crew loved the energy in Subatomic Heist. First, you get the veiled reference to Lacrimosa-esque classics, or something. But then the energy takes a few leaps and bounds with lyrics delivered in some style only Ren can do, really. Deadly Fantasies and Hush, the title track, truly impressed the crew with their Tardigradeable idea of how a nicely paced and neatly written rock song should sound.
When the RMR crew started on Hush, the record wouldn’t touch any heartstrings over here, much to the contrary. And the piece took its sweet time to ingratiate itself with the folks over at the office tower. But after a while, this very special brand of metal bedlam grew on us, and ever more little gems bubbled to the surface. In the end, the album coalesced into a pretty rowdy example of how psychotic metal urges could transform themselves into a neat little storyline with neat little metal suprises waiting at every turn.
Record Rating: 7/10 | Label: Self-Released | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 6 March 2026