Gospel of the Horns - Realm of the Damned
Invictus Productions - IP012 - 14 May 2007
By Paddy Walsh
Gospel of the Horns play thekind of no frills blackened thrash that can be likened to fellow Aussies
Destroyer 666 et al. After an uninteresting and lengthy instrumental opener - that sounds more like an embryonic standard song sans vocals, rather than a proper scene-setter - proceedings kick off properly with 'Trial by Fire'. Exhibiting the sub-sonic punkiness that has permeated
Darkthrone's latter-day material, 'Trial by Fire', and indeed much of 'Realm of the Damned', has a raw, visceral quality that mixes classic thrash with the grittier part of the black metal scale. The vocals are for the most rasped (although a few tracks have a surprising bit of hardcore-esque shout-along moments in them) in a vein reminiscent of Maniac's (ex-
Mayhem,
Skitliv), unfortunately emphasising his tendency to at times sound like a pissed off Donald Duck (listen to
Mayhem's
Grand Declaration of War if you don't believe me).
Despite this,
Realm of the Damned is a pretty blistering listen from start to finish, and
Gospel of the Horns are opviously more interested in sounding as raucous as possible. 'Death Sentence' is superb, veering from lumbering black n' roll a la
Satyricon into retro thrash territory at the drop of a hat. Efforts to weave a sense of the epic can be found throughout, with arching melodic solos often producing a genuinely magesterial atmosphere amidst all the relentless aggression. The blast beats that open 'Blood and Iron' lead into a very black metal riff that lurches wildly before setlling back into thrash territory once again.
Themes of war and satan are the rather suitable topics of discussion on
Gospel of the Horns's table, and as obviously cliched as they are it's hard to imagine anything more apt. '1915', for instance, opens with battle sounds, and its brilliantly melodic mid-section fully conjures that darkly epix atmosphere they're after.
Realm of the Damned is raw, at times harsh, but is comprised of very good material for the most part. As mentioned, the vocals have a tendency to grate a little, and they could certainly do with more variety to raise this band above their contemporaries. As it stands,
Gospel of the Horns are a band with their chops fully in order, which is of course the most important thing for black thrash, but if they could up the ante on future releases in a few other respects we'd have a seriously formidable group of angry Australians on our hands.
Official Gospel of the Horns MySpace
Official Invictus Productions Website
