So I finally listened to 'Hypa Hypa' by Eskimo Callboy

I could tell 'Hypa Hypa,' the latest single by German electronic metalcore band, Eskimo Callboy, was going to be a big deal from the onset. The way people reacted to it initially online was loud on all fronts, like it was some red hot new meme. Friends sharing it on their timelines, music groups popping with its name, friends sharing it in said music groups. At the time of me writing this, the video is just shy of four million views, and will only continue to grow. So I'm calling it right now: this will be the 'Sandstorm' of the heavy music world, for a time anyway.

'Hypa Hypa' is an electro Euro-club song with an 80s aesthetic that also has a late 2000's metalcore twist. Or a late 2000's metalcore song with an electro Euro-club twist and is bathed in an 80s aesthetic. Synth risers, bright colours, mullet wigs, fake moustaches, sunnies sitting on top of other sunnies, low chugs, breakdowns, and synchronised dances are par for the course here. Basically, it's the odd slur, a few swears, and two sexual assault allegations away from being a tonally brighter Attila. Their first song with new singer, Nico Sallach, 'Hypa Hypa' is just novelty. And novelty is indeed fun to write about, but more importantly, novelty is, like our own existence, fleeting. For instance, does anyone even remember or care about that Ned Flanders-themed band, Okilly Dokilly?

With ultimately fun but dumb parody songs like this, it's about how much it makes you chuckle than anything else. And this did not make me chuckle. (The only thing that's more subjective than music is comedy.) It's the kind of song that's best not to think too much about; a song that's cute but only in a social setting. When it comes to acts like Eskimo Callboy, the joke is nearly always the same: bands who don't look like your typical modern heavy band, making silly heavy music mixed with polar opposite poppier sounds, presented via exaggerated music videos about rock and excess (and in this case, with green screens and some pink neon lights for an '80s pastiche.) But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether you laugh with them or at them, it's getting noticed. This article adding to that in it's own small way - I never said I wasn't guilty.

The huge online success of Eskimo Callboy isn't hard to decipher: it's simple, stupid fun. People who don't like pop and club music can enjoy it because of all the guttural screams and chunky breakdowns. Whereas those who don't like metalcore can still get a kick out of it due to it's goofy video, what with its tongue so thoroughly slammed through its cheek that it looks like the Nazi general at the end of Overlord, plus all of the familiar electronic sounds. Of course, they're not the first to do this and they sure as shit won't be the last. You definitely can't say they didn't put the work in for the clip and it's wholesome to see the band loving all of the reactions, even if most were glowingly positive with zero critique.

If released ten years ago, 'Hypa Hypa' would've sat in the same ballpark as heavy-meets-electronic and cringe-tier crunkcore artists like I Set My Friends On Fire, Brokencyde, Design The Skyline (not really crunk but terrible nonetheless), Breathe Carolina, as well as the musical and moral dumpster fire of Blood On The Dance Floor. Funnily enough, Eskimo Callboy were founded in 2010, and they, obviously, seem to be born straight from that kind of "electronicore" music. (Though I recently saw a comment on Facebook where someone said that this reminded them of TISM. Which is... just... WHAT!?)

In fact, in that ten years, they've had multiple songs/videos blow up, racking up millions of views each. Like 'MC Thunder,' which has a sequel on their next release, and whose vibe and structure seems to be the blueprint of this single. Yet 'Hypa Hypa' has seen that same massive level of attention but on a much shorter timeline, due to the excess of social media word-of-mouth and YouTuber reactions spreading the song around like wildfire or a damn potent STD. Me? I guess I'm not really here nor there for it.

Eskimo Callboy's new EP, 'MMXX,' is out September 11th via Century Media Records. If you like it, new song 'Hate/Love' is out Friday, July 24th.