By Matt Dakers
When I first ripped off the packaging of the cd sleeve, I did a brief scan of the promotional artwork and thought to myself ‘oh, just another grim underground black metal band…’ Six beers later, I had the volume cranked.
Burial Hordes is a black metal band. End of story. No little fancy keyboard solos, no polished look whatsoever- just dirty dirty black metal. And that is the best kind.
When listening to these guys, I think of early Bathory recordings. Very distant sounding, lightly mastered, chaotic but it still has that fluent atmosphere. The overall soundscape of the album is achieved rather well with, of course, building tremolo picked riffs, slightly off tempo blasts and some very well done vocals. That being said, the vocals really stand out to me. They kick ass, reminding me of early 90’s Darkthrone.
Amongst the eight-track release, the fifth track “Gods cutthroat” really brings out the more traditional rock influence in the band. A lot it is the drop tempo repetitions that really highlight a great head banging part.
The only bone I have to pick with this release is that it is nothing new. There are tons of black metal bands that have this same direction, and I find it pretty boring at lease half the time. There needs to be more innovation and diversity, not just sticking with the sound that previous bands have already done. And that is why the black metal scene is over saturated. I think these modern bands should look to their root of their roots, take influence and build on it in their own creative way; without drawing sub genre lines. There is no trOO, only music.
But then again, I’m just a two sided bastard.
(Pulverised)
