Review Summary: Horrendous deliver a modern death metal classic.
Death metal is a genre mostly known as the flag of violence and brutality. A way for artists to express their darkest thoughts and imaginations. It is always exciting to see these dark images portrayed into music, but for me, the genre goes further. It is a canvas for experimentation, where different musical structures fit into one song and variety is king.
Horrendous´s new release makes me remember why I like death metal so much, delivering a modern, progressive and powerful classic.
My experience with this album was that of entering a dark labyrinth composed of twisted corridors, making one lose his sense of direction. After listening to the record for the first time, I barely remembered anything I listened, but I was left with a burning intrigue, anxious to get lost in the maze once again. After repeated listens, I began to sketch a mental map of the contrived puzzle, starting to remember it's contorted riffs, and making sense of what I was hearing.
Anareta is an album that rewards attentive listening. The clear production makes all of the instruments audible, but still allows the record to sound raw, aggressive and powerful. Each new listen sheds light on new details: the potent drumming, the extremely dynamic guitars and the refined bass that gives the songs texture are slowly but delightfully uncovered. Added to this instrumentation, are the terrifying and crude vocals, that surprisingly show a strong sense of emotion and force in the most climatic parts of the album.
And it is remarkable how this intricate set of songs still sounds cohesive. Tracks like
Sum of All Failures, which provides a delightful acoustic guitar introduction, and then explodes into a violent and cathartic barrage of screams and drumming, or like
Siderea, that brings a refreshing instrumental that smoothly ebbs and flows, show the band's talent in creating very varied compositions, without them feeling out of place or disjointed.
One of the best features of the album is the inclusion of the high pitched guitars and solos that illuminate the overall somber feeling of the songs. After being built riff by riff, the melodies erupt into these chill inducing passages, filled with emotion and incredible musicianship. The lengthy and epic
Ozymandias, for example, commences with ghastly riffs that evolve into exquisite rhythmical segments, that suddenly burst out into a gorgeous guitar solo. As well,
Stillborn Gods provides stunning sections with piercing guitars, accompanied by an emotional voice, which sees itself breaking for a slight instant from its monstrous sound into a human and moving form.
It is difficult to recommend any particular track, as
Horrendous have outdone themselves. It is impressive to see that they managed to mature so quickly, this being only their third album. I am very excited and captivated to witness what they will deliver next.
Anareta is an achievement that will be very difficult to surpass.
