it need to swing to the opposite extreme of brainless head banging with juvenile angst-ridden lyrics. Sometimes the genre just
needs something floating lazily along the middle, straddling the line between deeper meanings and music to burn down the world
while listening to. Echoing established bands with long and drawn out riffs where the vocals aren’t as important as the overall music
itself, Horns of Anguish presents three sonic journeys between seven and ten minutes long on their debut EP “Everlasting Apathy.”
The first thirty seconds of opening track
“Ominious” gives off a by-the-numbers impression
that would lead many to believe the music
is some sort of thrash or death act that’s been
heard a thousand times before and certainly
doesn’t need to be rehashed over again
here. The more interesting sounds come along
soon enough with a trick that is used frequently
throughout the EP of switching between
mono and stereo sound to signal changes in the
structure of the song. Each of these tracks is
in it for the long haul, building on previous
ideas over the course of the entire song. There
may be occasional forays in new directions, but
these are only temporary diversions
which will again in turn be thrown into the
overall mix before another change comes along so
it too can be gobbled up by the ever growing
horde of sound. The dragged out musical ideas
don’t ever go all the way into the drone genre,
but they do sometimes go on just a little too
long, begging for some extra variation or even a
shorter run time all together.
These songs are all about the guitar play, with
frequent layering of multiple guitar parts
together, as the electric guitar wrestles the
place
of top supremacy from the other instruments time
and again. The bass parts are clearly audible
and even intermittently serve as the main
hook of a song, but in the long run they are
just backing rhythm for the all important
distorted guitars. The drumming also keeps a
nice
steady beat going, but rarely attempts anything
that would draw too much attention to itself.
Even the vocals stay out of the front for the
most part, when they show up at all. Most of the
EP doesn’t bother with narrative storytelling,
instead allow the strings to do the talking.
On the rare occasions when vocals do show up
they tend to stick to the harsh yelling style,
with dips into throat grating screams, similar
to that found from bands like Venom that don’t
go for a total demonic growl.
There is a strong disparity between the three
songs that is the most compelling characteristic
of “Everlasting Apathy.” While the opening
track has that fast fist pounding feel, the
second song is much more muted and downplayed,
and then the final act is deeply distorted and
more mid-paced than anything heard earlier. The
switch between rhythmic and energetic sounds to
glum noises good for reminiscing about
old times and then a meshing of the two is what
gives the EP its identity, and will probably be
the make or break quality for whether
someone will be a fan of the music.
Horns of Anguish aren’t exactly stoner metal,
but the music would work well in the background
as people pass around the bong or load
up the vaporizer. It’s heavy enough that most
metal heads will dig it, regardless of
particular genre preference, but there’s also
enough
strong contrast between the guitar parts to make
it good for those far out or deeply personal
conversations that only tend to come around
while in an altered state of consciousness.
Highs: Epic building of musical ideas and strong contrasts between guitar parts to draw you in to the music
Lows: Some parts drag on too long and there aren't many vocals to hook the listener
Bottom line: Metal good enough that anyone could dig it in the right setting, but lacks anything that makes it stand out from the crowd
Review by xFiruath Metalunderground.com
