This might sound a little exaggerated, but you will go a long way to find anything as exciting and intriguing as the debut double album Cardinal Sins / Contrary Virtues from atheist rockers Hymns. The Midlands based duo of Samuel Manville and Peter Reisner ensure that overtly religious messages are all over Cardinal Sins / Contrary Virtues, from the title of the band / album, through the hymn laden opening track Prologue until the church organ spiced, Bach influenced, Epilogue closes the album. Again lyrically you can’t move for those religious references from the blatant Repent & Rebuild’s “Don’t put your faith in the Lord, he’s not listening, put it in me” and A Punch To The Temple’s chorus “Screaming hail marys and deliver me please, I’ve got a fist full of rosary beads”.

The challenge is what will non-atheists gain from listening to Hymns Cardinal Sins / Contrary Virtues, because it is almost impossible not to realise exactly where the band are coming from. Yet what makes Hymns so exciting is the conceptual nature of what has been created here and the strength of the music written. Infact one thing this album does highlight is the downside to the CD and even the MP3 age and that is the inability to turn something over, which is where Cardinal Sins / Contrary Virtues makes a wonderful piece of vinyl.

Cardinal Sins opens with the hymn laden Prologue which is short and simple beginning to the work of Hymns. What Prologue does have in connected with much of Cardinal Sins and equally Contrary Values is its minimal form. Though there are plenty of duo bands on the market, who manage to create a full sound through layering, Hymns seem to utilise the lack of band memberage in a simpler sound pattern that fits their musical stylings perfectly. Only when Miracles emerges at the start of Contrary Values is a much fuller sound revealed.

Returning to Cardinal Sins the simple four, five note guitar pattern of Repeat & Rebuild’s opening is quickly joined by Sam’s downbeat echoed vocals that hone all of the Midland twang he has been gifted with. The guitar riff is joined by a four beat cymbals and three beat kick drum that is minimalist in nature and allows the track to ebb and flow. This is not full force rock, but rather an edgy leering mist through which guitars can slide into view and drums thrust snarling lyrics into the listener’s ears.

Idyllic in Nature, Horrendous in Habit is all rapid basslines that are gloriously tasty and sharp guitars that encouraged Sam to jab away with his vocal intent; however, it is all a prelude to A Punch To The Temple. Possibly the most outstanding track on Cardinal Sins, quite rightly A Punch To The Temple is vicious, beginning with a short riven guitar pattern that the drum accompanies. Sam again jabs away vocally “You’re the best that I can be”, but it’s pained, anguished and encourages Sam to rage “Put your neck in my hands and I’ll squeeze it, you’re feeling queasy? Yeah ‘cause you should”. Despite the outward aggression it feels very controlled and that’s where Hymns excel, the underlying anger never finds Sam moving too much into the pained growls, in fact even the instrumentation though jabbing at times, doesn’t lose its structural flow.

Perseverance and With Patience demonstrate a softer side to Hymns, with the guitar flowing more than the tracks on Cardinal Sins that have gone before, Perseverance demonstrating the knack that Hymns have for running quietly along before throwing in just a little more volume to catch you if you’re napping, whilst With Patience might even tempt the mainstream listener, with Sam happy to sing along to the seriously infectious bass and lead guitar riff. Wicked Tongues closes Cardinal Sins and finds Sam aptly seeking deliverance and neatly encapsulates the first album.

Contrary Virtues not only offers an antidote to Cardinal Sins, but through the use of militaristic drum beat and church organ on Miracles draws initial comparisons with Arcade Fire’s Intervention, which are again heightened when the backing vocals join in providing that choral Arcade Fire-esque element.

Just in case there wasn’t a realisation Contrary Virtues had changed pace, Honesty calms everything down, the drums have been ditched and instead the acoustic guitar is unleashed with vocal support, Terms of Endearment follows a similar theme although the drum does roll into view before the track ends. However, the reduction of pace is nothing in comparison to Diligence, the brushed drum rhythm supported with bar-room piano, it stands out and provides a different side of Hymns. In fact that bar-room piano is reprised on Revelations and Tristitia, the latter initially vocally sounding like the Midland’s answer to Jarvis Cocker.

It is right that Cardinal Sins and Contrary Virtues appear as a double album, although Miracles and Epilogue feature the bookended use of a church organ there is sufficient in Contrary Virtues for it to sit off the back of Cardinal Sins and separate release would have just been seen as trite.

Conceptually the idea of an internal battle with the meaning of religion is not new, but Hymns offer an incredibly thoughtful album that deserves attention. Taken separately Cardinal Sins is all aggressive minimal rock, whilst Contrary Virtues is a fuller organ and piano influenced piece. As the end of 2011 ever grows closer, the release of Cardinal Sins / Contrary Virtues, even though style and subject wise it will never be described as a ‘happy’ Hymns are inexplicably about to brighten up November and beyond.

Reviewed by Jimbo Walsh.

Hymns' debut double album Cardinal Sins / Contrary Virtues is out on 12 December 2011 through Big Scary Monsters Recording Company as a double CD, CD with t-shirt or even the immense package of CD, DVD and t-shirt!