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Horned Almighty

Necro Spirituals

Written by: EW on 28/12/2010 13:16:44

The punk-as-fuck Danish black metallers Horned Almighty are back with another round of intensely Norwegian sounding beer-fuelled Motörhead-ian extremity on "Necro Spirituals" and as would be expected from such a style the result is raucous and enjoyable yet hardly life-changing in it's facade. My only previous experience with HA amounts to the purchase of 2006's "The Devil's Music - Songs of Death and Damnation" on vinyl cos the cover is bitchin' yet I'm not sure to this day it's been treated to more than one spin so I may as well be a mere new-comer to their belligerent attack and attune to their grimaced menace accordingly.

Not unlike literally thousands of other acts HA borrow significant stylistic influence from the heralded Norwegian BM acts of the early 90's with Darkthrone in particular being the key cog, which with an unhealthy dose of Impaled Nazarene turns a system of gruff fast unsophisticated tunes into 36 minutes of easily digested BM fare. It is not until final two tracks "The Blasphemous Burden" and "Absolved In The Sight Of God" that the pace drops below 4th and 5th gear, just in time to show they are no one trick-pony incapable of anything but all-out speed, but it is alas earlier tracks "Sworn Divine Vengeance" and "The Age of Scorn" that best typify the beast that is Horned Almighty. Possessors of a chunky, heavy death metal-tinged production ala ImpNaz the spirit of BM lives on in Horned Almighty as 'S''s bellows rings out atop the decently-performed riffs in "Foundation Of A Thousand Plagues" and the aforementioned "Absolved…", but searching for any deeper meaning to what is offered through all of these is as unnecessary as searching for Justin Bieber's testicles - you're unlikely to find any.

As a second, or perhaps even third tier BM album "Necro Spirituals" is a fine listen and a nice counter-weight to most of more progressive, transcendental stuff I tend to get wet in the knickers over these days; a good result I might add in the crowded fields of blasphemous black metal.

Download: Sworn Divine Vengeance, The Age of Scorn, Absolved In The Sight Of God
For The Fans Of: Impaled Nazarene, Aura Noir, Darkthrone
Listen: Myspace

Release date: 25.10.2010
Candlelight Records