I have a confession to make. RMR is a chocolativore. Sweet-flavored mana from the gods, aphrodisiac, and a divine vessel for rituals, this stuff has been consumed in liquid or solid form for ages. So, how could we resist the siren call of a band calling itself Godiva?
Now, we have two choices, either the name relates to the famous lady and her nude ride or the chocolate brand of the same name. The crew here just blatantly voted for the brand. I wonder why.
Yet, when we look at the album cover, a Victorian gory tableau sporting an offshoot of the last supper greets us. So, perhaps, there isn’t anything sweetish about their tale at all. Cocky backstabbing at the dinner table or sickly blood-stained just deserts? Unbridled Hubris beckons you.
Godiva here display an almost Carach Angren-ish knack for storytelling. The tall tales told center around misguided arrogance or egos larger than – well – the sun (Death of Icarus, for instance). Which – of course – lead to the inevitable demise of the brazen perpetrators. And that’s a rich theme, almost tailor-made for a trve metal disk.
And once the snazzy Media God leads off, the direction is set. Hubris‘ wares come in a robe of Melodic Death Metal vibes, garnished with a fair number of symphonic nuggets. The record often sounds like a tranquilized offshoot of stuff Fleshgod Apocalypse are usually up to. In other words, the piece sounds like songwriting’s own best victim. The songs are honed to a fine point, all expertly written and executed. Meaty riffs, astonishing expertly shredded solos that ring out at odd moments, full of hooks, and drums that never gripe. And all that metallic jazz is crowned by the vocalist’s relentless croaks that deliciously sound as if someone forgot to apply those much-needed cough drops. But – there’s never one sweaty hair out of place on this record. Too polished for its own good? Well, perhaps.
So, whilst the aforementioned Fleshgod Apocalypse always slam their fans into submission with some outrageous action, Godiva serenely roars down its well-polished metallic highway. And somehow, many of the tracks often dangerously sound alike. And that’s never a good thing. You will find enough (subdued) brutality, true. But the tracklist is way too slick to keep the RMR deck crew’s attention at high levels for a long time. And that often leads such decidedly elaborate works to fade away somewhere into the terrible background.
Now, there’s also good in those relatively calm waters.1 Hubris should indeed appeal to the masses of the Metal o’ The Light and garner this band a bunch of new fans. And for cause. There’s nothing truly amiss with this record after all. Only, the RMR crew found almost no memorable elements that would make us go back for seconds. Perhaps, Media God and Godspell kicked us the hardest with enough juice to please our cold meal hearts. The former even goes a-hunting in those wastelands currently ravaged by the folks over at Heavy Metal. Yet again, Godiva definitely ain’t one of those bands that freely latches on to ideas others already had. We get the influence, true, but the integration is exceedingly well done. And – besides – those HM vibes are exactly where they need to be.
Ultimately though, Hubris didn’t become a victim of its own vocation. And luckily so. The record contains a snazzy selection of well-crafted Extreme Metal tracks that never outlive the band members’ undeniable musical prowess. Nor does it go places that it should definitely not. Instead, you’ll find a neatly buttoned-down record with all nuts and bolts securely fastened. Safe-road metal with benefits.
So, if the band’s next full-length record would dispense more roguish metal wickedness, then Godiva here could definitely be on a path to knock themselves up a few notches on the ladder to that elusive metal nirvana. Hubris was indeed a nice surprise on our turntables this early 2023. But we’ll be looking for glitzy metal outrage and wild symphonic gyrations going forward. Keep ’em coming, folks.
Record Rating: 6/10 | Label: Self-Released | Web: Facebook (band)
Release Date: 3 February 2023
- As in, metalhead calm. 70K-ton-cruise calm. -Ed.-↩