Gospel of the Horns - Realm of the Damned (INVICTUS Productions - LP 2007)
I don't know if you realize what potential lies within the Australian death / black / necro fuckin thrash scene, if you don't then please check such bands as Destroyer 666, Gospel of the Horns, Abominator, Vomitor, Razor of Occam... The scene "down below" has developed truly killer, individual sound, one which takes a lot of influence from the old, pioneering bands - Venom, Sodom, Kreator, Bathory, Blasphemy, Possessed, etc., even Motorhead - and creates the obscure metal of the best quality. If you like "Satan" in your music and the sound raw and uncompromising, then they're for you.
Gospel of the Horns, as I already wrote, belongs in my opinion to the best Aussie bands. I don't really like their first recordings, like "The Satanist's Dream", much, but from the "Eve of the Conqueror" MLP through the "A Call to Arms" LP from 2002, they did fuckin shred. And here's the second album from the Aussie commando, "Realm of the Damned", released in 2007, as limited to 725 copies red gatefold vinyl, with cool poster and with great layout. Try to get this vinyl, as such music sounds best on this format!
Music wise Gospel of the Horns delivers a thundering old school blasphemous metal. I prefer to call it simply "metal", for two reasons. First, this is pure metal, not infected by any strange influences, it's based on classic instrumentation, played with the passion and understanding of the metal principles. And two, the band takes the equal measures of death, black, thrash and even more extreme heavy metal and melts it into their own music. They play it with savage energy, straightforward attitude and take no prisoners. They do play relatively fast, but don't think they use blast beats or whatever. It is fast in rather hmm... old thrash metal way. Gospel of the Horns doesn't waste their time and just shreds through the entire album, whipping and slashing with more and more razor sharp killer old school riffs. Meanwhile Mark Howitzer screams like possessed and Chris Masochist and Hexx play some noisy, Slayer-esque solos. Some of these leads really sound like good old heavy metal, like the one in the title track, especially if the riff and the overall tempo of the song the vibe of dirty rock'n'roll of Venom. There's cool dark atmosphere on the album and with the cool production, the final effect is truly "pleasant" he, he.
Yeah, Gospel of the Horns does deliver a good listening experience. Personally I do enjoy the album a lot, but have just two minor complains. First, the songs tend to repeat themselves a little, sometimes the riffs and the ideas sound quite similar and one may almost dare and ask the band whether they still have something new to offer in the future or did they already used all the best ideas? I don't want to say that "Realm of the Damned" is boring at some fragments, but definitely not every riff or song is that killer. There're some fillers, I'm afraid also. But I grab a beer, bang my head and don't even notice this really. And also, my other complain would be that I think I prefer the previous album, "A Call to Arms", slightly more. But that's just my opinion. All in all, Gospel of the Horns is good band and this is yet another solid effort from them. I highly recommend it to all old school orthodox maniacs.
Final rate: 70/ 100
Gospel of the Horns, as I already wrote, belongs in my opinion to the best Aussie bands. I don't really like their first recordings, like "The Satanist's Dream", much, but from the "Eve of the Conqueror" MLP through the "A Call to Arms" LP from 2002, they did fuckin shred. And here's the second album from the Aussie commando, "Realm of the Damned", released in 2007, as limited to 725 copies red gatefold vinyl, with cool poster and with great layout. Try to get this vinyl, as such music sounds best on this format!
Music wise Gospel of the Horns delivers a thundering old school blasphemous metal. I prefer to call it simply "metal", for two reasons. First, this is pure metal, not infected by any strange influences, it's based on classic instrumentation, played with the passion and understanding of the metal principles. And two, the band takes the equal measures of death, black, thrash and even more extreme heavy metal and melts it into their own music. They play it with savage energy, straightforward attitude and take no prisoners. They do play relatively fast, but don't think they use blast beats or whatever. It is fast in rather hmm... old thrash metal way. Gospel of the Horns doesn't waste their time and just shreds through the entire album, whipping and slashing with more and more razor sharp killer old school riffs. Meanwhile Mark Howitzer screams like possessed and Chris Masochist and Hexx play some noisy, Slayer-esque solos. Some of these leads really sound like good old heavy metal, like the one in the title track, especially if the riff and the overall tempo of the song the vibe of dirty rock'n'roll of Venom. There's cool dark atmosphere on the album and with the cool production, the final effect is truly "pleasant" he, he.
Yeah, Gospel of the Horns does deliver a good listening experience. Personally I do enjoy the album a lot, but have just two minor complains. First, the songs tend to repeat themselves a little, sometimes the riffs and the ideas sound quite similar and one may almost dare and ask the band whether they still have something new to offer in the future or did they already used all the best ideas? I don't want to say that "Realm of the Damned" is boring at some fragments, but definitely not every riff or song is that killer. There're some fillers, I'm afraid also. But I grab a beer, bang my head and don't even notice this really. And also, my other complain would be that I think I prefer the previous album, "A Call to Arms", slightly more. But that's just my opinion. All in all, Gospel of the Horns is good band and this is yet another solid effort from them. I highly recommend it to all old school orthodox maniacs.
Final rate: 70/ 100
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