†Hymns† - Cardinal Sins / Contrary Virtues

Very few bands would even dream of releasing a debut album like this one. A concept album, spread over two discs and based around some of the most fundamental cornerstones of Christianity, ʻCardinal Sins / Contrary Virtuesʼ is nothing if not ambitious. Midlands-based duo †Hymns†, made up of ex-Blakfish frontman Sam Manville and drummer Peter Reisner, certainly havenʼt pulled any punches when it comes to religious references and iconography on their debut album.

Now Iʼm going to honest here, this next bit is made up of semi-educated guesses and assumptions. †Hymns† themselves insist that they are not at all religious, so I could be jumping to conclusions and this may all just be a series of coincidences - but stay with me, it all makes sense, I promise. The first disc, ʻCardinal Sinsʼ, is made up of seven ʻproperʼ tracks (excluding the instrumental prologue) - each representing one of the cardinal sins. Meanwhile, the seven ʻproperʼ tracks (epilogue excluded) on ʻContrary Virtuesʼ stand for, unsurprisingly, the seven contrary virtues. According to Christian beliefs, each of the contrary virtues directly corresponds to and counteracts one of the deadly sins, meaning that, over the course of the first disc, †Hymns† effectively commit all of the seven cardinal sins, before neutralising their actions again during the latter half of the album. See, I wasnʼt joking when I said it was ambitious…

With wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony packed into just seven tracks (plus prologue), itʼs probably no surprise that the overall tone of ʻCardinal Sinsʼ is fairly dark. The production on the first disc is kept fairly basic; the brash guitars and thunderous drums are constant throughout, while Manvilleʼs idiosyncratic vocals leap from frantic and shouty to warm and melodic. For a guitar-and-drums duo, the dynamics are quite impressive, but as the first disc progresses, the formula does start to get slightly one-dimensional.

However, ʻContrary Virtuesʼ is, as expected, more or less the opposite of ʻCardinal Sinsʼ. Opening track ʻMiraclesʼ (even the song titles are more cheery) begins with an uplifting pipe organ chord sequence and gentler guitars, while ʻHonestyʼ even sees some subtle harmonies swelling underneath the fingerpicked acoustic guitar. The production is more full-bodied on this half of the record too, and there is more diverse instrumentation, such as the lone out-of-tune piano on ʻRevelationsʼ, and the medieval waltz of ʻDiligenceʼ. The lyrics are just as sinister as they are on disc one though; during ʻDiligenceʼ Manville howls “Iʼm crying for help but thereʼs nobody near / To hear / Or care.” Although the overall mood may have lifted, it seems as though †Hymns† are still as cynical as before - a consistency that is strangely comforting.

ʻCardinal Sins / Contrary Virtuesʻ really is an intriguing album. Although on the surface it might appear to be just another record from just another garage-rock two-piece, in reality it is much more than that. With new layers and meanings becoming exposed with every listen, there is far more to it than just visceral energy, although thereʼs plenty of that too. Itʼs an album that requires, and deserves, more than just a single listen. Manville and Reisnerʼs vision and ambition should be applauded in itself, but they have successfully pulled it off without ever coming across as pretentious - and thatʼs seriously impressive.