Everyone’s favourite filthy Finns are back with a new album, the title of which means ‘A Step Closer To Satan.’ So business as usual then! Yep pretty much and as the band formed in 1993 they are actually hitting their 30th anniversary although not seemingly making any fuss about such things. In these three decades founding member Shatraug and his assorted miscreants have delivered an amazing arsenal of material all in the name of the dark lord. This may only be the ninth official studio album from the cult but if you look at their full discography there are stacks of splits, compilations, live albums and EP’s to keep any collector busy. The epic last full length double release Sanojesi Aarelle came out way back in 2008 clocked in at a full 85 minutes but the new one is not quite so harrowing length wise although musically it is just as much a foul and fetid treatise as its predecessor. Since that time singer Corvus has been replaced by Spellgoth and the group appear to have a brand new bass player Hex Inferi in the ranks. Between all the members there are literally a horde of other bands that they are involved in and Shatraug alone seriously takes the claim for one of the busiest performers in black metal around and if you look back it was only recently that the last Behexen album was making serious waves.
Lyrics and song titles are all in their native tongue although a quick copy and paste through a translation engine wields no huge surprises as far as titles like ‘Glory To The Lord, The King’ ‘The Ninth Gate’ ‘No More Tears’ and ‘Morning Star Saints’ are concerned. These are obviously hymns that are dedicated very much to the left hand path.
A nice tomb like and chilling intro sets up the atmosphere and has you shivering at the rank horror soundtrack etched terror exuding like smoke from a crypt in a Fulci movie. Then it is a slow slithering cadaverous crawl into the album’s title track rather than all guns blazing but this keeps the edge literally frozen over rasping vocal gurgles and razor sharp instrumentation. A simple beat from the drums and a hint of melody pervades as things stagger and stumble round the crypt gathering momentum and harsher tones, there is definitely a fetid air about all this. Throughout the album one noticeable aspect amongst the primitivism is the emphasis put on the clattering sharp crash of the cymbals, Vainaja certainly likes giving them a good old thwack. If the pace was a bit slow, hang onto your capes as ‘Kunnia Herralle, Kuninkaalle’ steams in like the veritable clappers and is backed up by a gibbering vocal performance which sounds completely deranged. The song also closes that gap between black metal and punk nicely having a bouncing crusty feel about it at times, nicely defined amidst the simply forged beat and yobbish melodic thrust.
Considering that Spellgoth started out as a session vocalist he really has been given the chance to shine here. Well shine is the wrong word as he coats everything with a thick layer of grime. It could not be said that he is a multi-dimensional vocalist or anything as there is nothing resembling skilful clean singing here but on songs like the tumultuous ‘Yhdeksäs Portti’ he simply hollers with a rabid intensity which really cannot fail to get your attention. It would be great to see the band live just to see what his showmanship is like but naturally rituals from Horna are few and far between. The ten songs are nothing like as drawn out as some of the ones on the last album but are on the whole concisely flung at you with little in the way of finesse, which suits the mood perfectly. Put the sound together with the cover art and you cannot help but think you have been pitched into the middle of some foul, decrepit Lovecraftian black mass as the whirling guitar fronds wrap themselves around you like tentacles.
Track of the album for me would probably be ‘Kärsimyksin Vuoltu Hänen Valittuna Äänenään’ as it seems to pull all the elements together and really has a great melodic precision about it driven on by those flurrying guitars and crunching cymbals. The whole album is a bit of a heady rush though and delivers pretty much everything you would expect from Horna. This is not polished black metal in the slightest but the production suits it perfectly with an echoing timbre about things making it sound like it was laid down in a particularly deep, dank cavern and listening to this makes you feel the need to go and take another shower. Job done!
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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