I lucked on to this Brooklyn band just before the review copy arrived; some social media post, a picture that made me think ‘they look suitably obnoxious and anti-social. Kinda like Gehennah… ” Wonder if they sound like that?
‘Gape My Blackened Hearts’. Vomiting sound, punk bass line, primitive riff and the first actual words spat out seemingly “suck my cock… ”
Er… Yup guess they do. Entreating us to do all sorts of nasty this to them and take from them this is lo-fi stuff. Venom and the aforementioned Gehennah in a blender with early Darkthone as a garnish. In fact, to call this primitive is at times an insult to the sophistication of cavemen.
None of this is a criticism of course.
Which is kinda why after that the opening riff on ‘Baphomet In Steel’ is a shock of orthodox Norwegian style bm. Still normal service is resumed and its back to the screaming screeching raw boned metal and pretty unhinged vocals veering from gabbling to moaning to outright screams which have at times only a flirting relationship to the time signature. It kinda sounds like the band were in an alley outside the window of a psychiatric prison playing along to the inmate at the bars
Again. Not a criticism.
Next up we get a brief interlude, set to mournful piano of some guy jerking off to online porn by the sounds…
Delightful.
‘Blasphemic Gooning’ is a speedster; downhill, hurtling and spasmodic with a great dirty riff and some actually pretty neat time changes.
It about here when you realise that these guys might be goons but they damn well have something and know what they want to do. ‘Endless Rosary’ might be raw as their gaping orifices but it’s a great rattling, insane scramble over punked out black metal to get to the finish and scattering hooks with a perverse glee.
They even manage and epic of sorts. Seven minutes of ‘A Wailing And A Weeping And A Busting Ov Cheeks’. Chaotic noise breaks out into a slow dark riff that sputters into energetic life and a nasty tale of heaven may indeed be a pain in the ass if their experience is anything to go by.
Another unpleasant interlude of street life and trash talk in ‘Narcaananite (The Infernal Dose)’ leads into the title track. It’s another deceptively adept song despite the impression of barely together chaos their style presents. With touches of traditional metal, real melody and…gasp…singing (which really ain’t half bad)
For all the primitive style and live in the raw sound, all the off kilter barked and gabbled and screeched vocals, all the endless mentions of inadvisable treatment of gaping orifices Horns & Hooves have an undeniable…well maybe not charm….Filthy charisma maybe. The riffs rip in that early Venom and primitive thrash style and the time changes work every time. There’s a weird sense of imagination to the music despite the brutal approach and sparse production. Lyrically? Well I guess it goes with the sound at least they appear to..er… Have as bad a time of it themselves as any others.
But it really is just horrible, filthy fun.
Puke. Shit. Bodily fluids. Bad drugs. Satan. God. Metal.
Hate yourself for loving it.
(8/10 Gizmo)
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