• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

I present to you, Metalcrypt reader, with the first ever time-traveling album review. This promo is on its way from Christian (I think) but undeterred by the laws of time and space, I shall review it anyway. Haha! I am mad I tell you. Mad!

This is the debut for this Brazilian Death Metal band, and despite the fact that it is in no way original, it rules just the same. The Listenable label on a CD is a pretty reliable mark of quality, as pretty much everything they release is cool. (Okay, Soilwork are an extreme exception) If you need a touchstone for this band, think of only one thing: Krisiun. Yep, that pretty much sums up Horned God's sound. I wish I could say this is in some way new or different, but this is the same kind of brutal smashing South American DM bands have been peddling for years. Now I am not at all calling that a bad thing, as I can enjoy generic brand Death Metal as well as the next guy, and Horned God certainly do what they do extremely well. This is fast, precise death metal with the same sort of spiraling-scale riffs Krisiun usually rely on. The riffing is cool though, and Horned God actually put way more variety and dynamic in their songs than is usual, sometimes slowing things down for a few bars of thrashy chunking. The double-bass abuse is not as bad here as one would expect, and the drum production is actually a bit weak. This may reduce the overall punch of the sound a bit, but it does keep the toms from overwhelming the guitars with a constant clickety-clickety-clickety.

So Horned God=good Death Metal=good. This is not a groundbreaking CD, but it is brutal, well-played and highly enjoyable. It's short, but deathheads sort of expect that I suppose. You won't remember a thing about this disc once it's over, but you will remember that you liked it. If you spun "Conquerors Of Armageddon" as many times as I did, then this is a good CD to pick up, as it's almost as good.