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HORRENDOUS
Idol

Season Of Mist (2018)
Rating: 9/10

And here’s another example as to why 2018 has been such a great year for death metal. American clan Horrendous has evolved into such a methodical and refreshing beast since being born in 2009. Idol is the fourth album from the combo – their first for Season Of Mist – and it’s one sure to get tongues wagging and brains short circuiting.

Idol, put simply, may disappoint those who wanted a style of old school mentality, but fuck the stubborn and stuck cavemen detractors because this record is Horrendous at its most progressive, expansive and brilliant.

Just like a lot of the classic bands within the genre, Horrendous has begun to evolve at a rate of knots, so this time we get great atmospheric soundscapes that are a world away from more standard, fusty designs the band opted for on their early records. It’s been three years since their last full-length release (October 2015’s Anareta), but Horrendous feels and sounds like a new band. Refreshed and maturing at pace, the guys have crafted a thinking man’s slab of death metal offering up 40-minutes of music that sticks to its framework without becoming rigid in format.

After the short introduction of ‘…Prescience’ we get the gloriously Gothic progressive rumbles of ‘Soothsayer’. Here I get strong elements of Pestilence, Death and Cynic – three bands that provided recorded milestones within the genre of more progressive extreme metal. And this track sums up where Horrendous is at; the deep cosmic thunders of the percussion and bass flow into black rivers of enormous groove based guitar rhythms. But although the solos flit and the angles are at times protruding, ‘Soothsayer’ remains steady and accessible, bringing thrashy flashes of fury as the vocals snap with dehydration.

It’s a superb way of Horrendous introducing us to their new album; confident strides being made as they occasionally drift from the death metal methods to try their hand at innovation. But it’s still an infectious and riveting experience and thankfully such exuberance and philosophy continues throughout this impressive record.

‘The Idolater’ starts with those Cynic-cum-Death-styled sparking trickles, tthe bass dribbling nicely to the tinkle of Jamie Knox’s drums before the team combines to create a charring, jabbing wall of mid-paced aggression. And then we’re off on some convulsive gallop; the guitars providing intriguing but not all too confusing patterns as Horrendous find its core sound with those snappy vocal rasps and that hammering percussion.

The old school aesthetics still exist, hence the ominous feel throughout the album with such gargantuan tracks such as ‘Golgothan Tongues’ and the monstrous eight-minute closer ‘Obulos’, with the band still plying us with dark aggression right from the 90s circa, say, Cynic’s Focus.

Bassist Alex Kulick is the star of the show here, as at times such unique meanderings tend to dominate, even overshadowing the guitar work, as do the drums which shift gear and force the guitars to follow. But it’s great to hear a band of this ilk flexing its muscles; from the clear vocal drifts and nimble axe work we get sudden glimmers of light within the dry, rasping gloom. Just check out the excellent atmospherics created by ‘Divine Anhedonia’ with its melodious strains and heavenly solos.

This is not a band attempting a basic, one-dimensional classic death metal era trend, and it’s not a band trying to force false nuances onto itself to be clever – the progressive shifts are natural, flirting with a 70s styled wildness and yet remaining as tight as a nun’s vagina. Idol just works in so many ways, and rewards in every expression of its detail which all comes wrapped up in that 90s progressive style.

Neil Arnold

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