HORRENDOUS – Ontological Mysterium
August 29, 2023, a year ago
(Season Of Mist)
Forward-thinking death metal cavemen Horrendous have been a band to watch over the past decade or so, since 2012 debut The Chills made us all stop and take notice.
And here on Ontological Mysterium the band storm out of the gates strong 'n' weird on opener “Chrysopoeia (The Archaeology Of Dawn)”, with clean vocals storming the battlefields as if this is hoary and hairy Euro trad metal. “Neon Leviathan” taps the church of latter-day Death for slippery and slide inspiration, and also, just when I started thinking, “Wait a second, are Horrendous not that fun to actually listen to?” the Frehley's Comet guitar-god stuff starts happening, and, yes, it's fun.
“Exeg(en)esis” (god these song titles are killing me) is a late-album blast of sideways prog DM, and it's a whole lot of awesome to listen to, as is the raging title track and closer “The Death Knell Ringeth”, a superb trio of songs to end of this album, which finds Horrendous crawling further into their cave, further into outer space, further into their own vision. At times it's a bit alienating and difficult, but the best art often is.
