HYAENA Writes an Open Letter to Society with Their New Record ‘Poison Pen’ [Album Premiere]

Halloween may be over, but we’re sticking with the dark themes, at least for another day, with the full album premiere of French band Hyaena’s Poison Pen. The album was just released yesterday and is available for order now, via Big Cartel. Approaching their tenth anniversary now, Poison Pen marks the sophomore release from Hyaena, a quintet of metalcorers, originally from the small French city of Orléans.

The band significantly modified their approach in the way they wrote Poison Pen, with a greater focus on efficiency and stripping the process of any fuss or long spells of unproductivity. It was also approached the only way the writing of an album, or a song for that matter, should be written: their way. They put in all the hard work and those long nights of writing and recording songs, so consequentially, the members of Hyena wanted Poison Pen to sound authentically their own.

As an album of songs, Poison Pen hits on a clear theme, and musically, it incorporates many different influences. With regards to the album, the band said, “Poison Pen is about the society and life, it’s an open letter to the absurd world we live in. This album was entirely made by ourselves, this is why he is so unique to us. We brought many genres to the table, progressive metal, hardcore, metalcore, and some death metal. It’s hard to predict what the album will sound like, judge by yourself!”

Experience Hyaena’s open letter to society with the debut of their new record Poison Pen:

The year was 2010 when Hyaena was born. Originally a project created by bassist and songwriter Nathan Lourdou and guitarist and songwriter Jimmy Couton, a full band came of it in 2013 when singer Virgile Ramache came aboard. Their debut EP Seasons followed about a year later, a collection of melodic and technical songs that posed questions about society and man’s relationship with the environment. This premise of society and the human condition has become a consistent point of examination for the group, both personally and through their music.

The addition of second guitarist Alex Barthélémy was integral in the writing and completion of Hyaena’s debut full-length Existence. The writing of Existence was no easy process, requiring three years of work that paid off in over an hour of progressive dark ambiances and melodies that will captivate you. Poison Pen will carry forth what Hyaena began with the release of Existence and it won’t take you long to realize why this masterwork took such a long period of time to be produced.

Check out the music video for “Stolen Hero,” the first single off of Poison Pen:

Poison Pen Track Listing:

01. “Letters”
02. “Six Feet Deeper”
03. “Dead on Time”
04. “Stolen Hero”
05. “Prisoner of War”
06. “Chains”
07. “Lies”
08. “The Other Shore”
09. “Shadows of an Impostor”
10. “Animal”

Quite appropriate for this time of year, check out the artwork for the Poison Pen album: