| HORSE THE BAND A NATURAL DEATH |
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| TRACKLIST |
1. Hyperborea
2. Murder
3. The Startling Secret of Super Sapphire
4. The Beach
5. Face of Bear
6. Crickets
7. New York City
8. Sex Raptor
9. The Red Tornado
10. Crow Town
11. Treasure Train
12. His Purple Majesty
13. Kangarooster Meadows
14. Rotting Horse
15. I Think We Are Both Suffering From The Same Crushing Metaphysical Crisis
16. Lif |
| REVIEWS |
Review Date: 7/29/2007
Author: Bob |
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For those of you who don’t know HORSE The Band, this band has become famous for its Nintendocore, experimenting hardcore with 1980s video games style sounds. I remember listening to a few HORSE The Band songs a few years, and I thought the keyboards were too present, and not interesting enough. However, I must confess that I might not have been very attentive to the music, and my musical tastes were quite different in that time. Now I have the opportunity to review their new album: A Natural Death, and I must say I am far from disappointed.
The first thing that you should know about A Natural Death is that it is a very, very wide album when it comes to style range. As a whole, this album is a very high quality metalcore album. There are some very melodic death metal parts, with aggressive guitar riffing, and fast drum blast beats. It sometimes sounds like black metal (a bit like Immortal or older Satyricon). Of course, there are typical breakdowns, sometimes very aggressive, sometimes quite atmospheric. The keyboards add this moody element to the breakdowns. Melodies over breakdowns are not new, but HORSE The Band’s typical keyboard tone adds some originality to the breakdowns. Indeed, the keyboards aren’t that much used in a Nintendo noise style, but rather like another guitar, with another tone. Of course, it’s not exactly like another guitar, but it does remind me of Children Of Bodom’s earlier works. A Natural Death also has a lot of sludgecore elements, and it’s simply brilliant. The regular guitar/bass/drums in sludgecore is usually very good, but the use of keyboards is simply perfect, as it reinforces the moody aspect. Now what about the vocals shall you ask? The vocals are very good indeed. Typically (in a good way) post-hardcore when screaming, the vocals sound a lot like Sincebyman when it comes to clean singing. They sound like complaints, never whining, more like exasperated shouting. The singer also experiments with the telephone/under water effect that is quite common in a lot of Opeth’s mellow songs, slightly saturated faraway vocals.
There is a nice surprise in this album, which has nothing to with metalcore. HORSE The Band have also made a very good dance rock song. Although the song starts like a typical Gunther tune, it quickly sounds more like The Killers, especially when it comes to the vocals. This hasn’t a lot to do with the rest of A Natural Death (although it does a bit), but still, it is very good. |
Bottom Line: HORSE The Band experiment in a very wide range of genres, while always retaining their own sound. Just get this album, you’ll love it.
Oh, and by the way, the album art just shows how seriously these guys take themselves. |
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Rating: 11
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