Himsa was forged in October of 1998 to provide outlets of each members' expression, anger, political ideas and emotional rage. Initiated by members of Seattle band Trial, the genesis of Himsa began at a basement practice. With the addition of the multi-talented Aaron Edge (Harkonen, Genuine, Christ, Anonymous) on guitar and Christian (Anonymous, Jessica) on vocals, the makings for a complete aural and mental assault were complete. "Himsa's members come from hardcore backgrounds, but I'm not looking to label us as a hardcore band. Let's just think of it as it pertains to me, 'core' which means the central part of anything," bassist Derek Harn expounds.



The name Himsa is a shortened version of the Sanskrit word "Ahimsa" which has varied meanings in different cultures, mostly with non-violent connotations. Derek offers his reasoning, "I don't want to give a strict definition because you may find it means something different than someone else and it kind of relates to how I want our music to be thought of." Guitarist Aaron adds, "If the word 'Himsa' is looked at literally, people may think that we are a negative group of people for choosing it as our band name. The word 'Himsa' forces me to look at life's issues in a dark light in order to focus on changing things for the better."



Christian defines their sound as "the point between frequencies on the radio dial. It can be soothing and disturbing all at once." Each member contributes their own background experiences to each song, and political and social issues are never ignored.



Since forming, Himsa has stood through the intense beginnings that could only tear other bands apart. Having grown through many line-up changes (The current incarnation features the vocal duties being handled by ex-Undertow and Nine Iron Spitfire vocalist John Pettibone.), Himsa has progressed into an original metal-styled band that has it's roots firmly planted in the hardcore scene. The combination of speed and technical precision in their music leads to mind-numbing changes and hints of harmonic thrash-metal not seen before in a band from this genre.

Death Is Infinite

Derek Harn - Tim Mullen - Brian Johnson - Kirby Johnson - John Pettibone - Clay Layton

Ground Breaking Ceremony

Derek Harn - Mike Green - Brian Johnson - Aaron Edge - Christian

HIMSA - Death Is Infinite

After countless line-up changes Revelation's most uncompromising hardcore outfit is back with a new four track mcd. Although one can detect more classic metal-riffs than on their previous releases, this sounds a lot more "hardcore" than "Groundbreaking Ceremony". The songwriting is a lot "straighter" and more "in-your-face" and it seems to me that the songs on this mcd are also a little easier to digest. Don't get me wrong, this is still brutal as hell and John Pettibone's extreme voice sounds pretty much hardcore to me. I mean, he was frontman for Undertow and NinetyIronSpitfire, so what did you expect? To make it short, even with a whole new line-up the name Himsa still stands for the finest combination of Hardcore and Metal there is. While so many other bands tend to be plain destructive, Himsa know exactly how to channel their aggression and anger into utterly sick sounds... I need a new full-length!!

The bonus track is a really good live-recording of one of their songs and it just shows that those are just as furious on stage! I'd give this 10 out of 10 if it was a full-length. Maybe even 11 out of 10!!

XSEBX.com