Review - Horrendous "ECDYSIS" (Dark Descent Records)

Hailing from the East Coast of America, Horrendous are a death metal band that make records like they used to make them. In fact, sophomore album, Ecdysis, would have you swear you were listening to something from 1994 as opposed to 2014. With lowbrow production values, organic drumming and treble-heavy guitar sound, this is a disc that wears its influences on its sleeve: so old-school, you’ll be scribbling on your jotter as you spin it.

Opening track, The Stranger, is a beast of a thing setting the tone perfectly for the rest of the album. The guitars are down-tuned, distortion-heavy; an almost black metal-esque wall of noise were it not for those sweeping leads washing over the top. And then you’ve got Damien Herring’s vocals piercing through the mix; not so much a growl as a beer-soaked drawl. Blackie Lawless eat your heart out.   

The Weeping Relic picks up the pace even more, pounding drums and speed riffing driving us hard. 

Things are taken back a notch with 5^th track, The Vermillion, an acoustic instrumental with more than a little Spanish Castle Magic (to quote the great Yngwie). Ninth track, Pavor Nocturnus, brings those black nuances back, even throwing in a little doom, with its minor-keyed guitar and reverbed vocal. But it’s on tenth track, Titan, where this album peaks; an emotionally charged crescendo with sweeping guitar and painfully melancholic vocals. You’ll be knocked off your feet.

Ecdysis is an album built for the metal fan whose denim jacket is littered with Entombed and Carnage (and maybe even WASP) patches; the kind of metaller who shakes their fist at death metal with monikers such as ‘technical’ or ‘melodic’ and reaches for the off switch at the first sign of triggered drumming. Dig in.

Horrendous website: https://www.facebook.com/HorrendousDeathMetal

Label: Dark Descent (http://www.darkdescentrecords.com)

Release date: October 14 2014

Reviewer: Wayne Simmons (www.waynesimmons.org)