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- Bands:
HORNED ALMIGHTY - Duration: 00:36:26
- Available from: 05/07/2024
- Label:
-
Soulseller Records
Streaming not yet available
Perseverance is undoubtedly one of the main qualities of Horned Almighty, one of those bands that, all things considered, represent the true working class of the European black metal circuit. Having been around for over twenty years now (even more if we take into consideration the beginnings under the name Mareridt), the Danes occasionally lose their traces, but in the end they always return, moreover with increasingly denser and more refined works.
“Contagion Zero” represents, not surprisingly, another chapter in the evolution of the group’s style. Having partially abandoned the old school roots that distinguished them in their first works, strongly influenced by Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, the band has been exploring more nuanced and complex territories for some time now, demonstrating a desire to experiment and test themselves.
This new work therefore marks a further step towards more sulphurous and vaguely dissonant sound textures, which end up dominating several episodes. The robustness and crude ignorance of the riffs of the past are partly set aside in favor of a more refined and structured sound research. In short, it is clear that Horned Almighty are trying to update themselves and remain relevant in an increasingly crowded and competitive contemporary black metal scene; the demonstration arrives immediately with the opener “The Messiah Scourge”, an enveloping song that fully brings out the decadent and nocturnal frontier atmosphere that the quartet wants to tell us. However, a song like “Vermin on the Mount” stands out above all in the tracklist: here the various currents explored by Horned Almighty over the course of their career blend harmoniously, creating a mix that tastes of old and new at the same time. The piece, unfolding through various tempo changes, manages to maintain an interesting balance between groove and complexity, offering an experience that captures and involves from start to finish. Also particularly valid is “Darken the World”, in which the almost monolithic minimalism and essentiality, often typical of the group’s sound, are diluted on a newly articulated structure that never descends into the pretentious.
Even if all in all the stroke of genius that could elevate the album to a higher level is missing, the ‘new’ Horned Almighty prove to be rather inclined to search for a melodic line in their compositions, as well as to have moments in which the fury calms down to give way to painful moments of suspension. Even on partially unpublished records, the Danes therefore confirm themselves as a reliable and substantial team, which knows how to take some risks, freeing itself from old comparisons with Carpathian Forest and Khold, but at the same time remaining faithful to its own identity.
