Nexus newspaper
Camosun College's student newspaper
Horrenda
Think on Your Sins
Fiadh Records
3/5
Originally released independently last year, Horrenda’s EP Think on Your Sins is being reissued by Fiadh Records. On the EP, the Dublin-based extreme metal group brings us a thrashing depiction of Dante’s “Inferno,” one that, unfortunately, doesn’t quite bring the heat.
The five songs, averaging about four minutes each, don’t feel like enough to really deliver in this case. The album moves through at rapid pace, ultimately shuffling along before it can truly make a place for itself and stake its claim in your heart.
“Canto I: Descent” opens with haunting strings and welcomes you in, while the next three tracks blend this into the harsh intensity of thrashing chords and a screamo sound. While the guitar work is masterful, the vocals leave much to be desired. Despite being iconic of the genre, the lyrics are never clear enough to make out the themes promised, making the collection of songs more an instrumental journey than anything else. That said, this alone is worth the listener’s time, as the rhythm of each song is an exciting fusion of blackened metal’s breakneck pace with chords evocative of the Irish soundscapes the band aims to bring to distant shores.
While the narratives and meaning itself become lost in the resonance, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even without words, the auditory experience delivers the band’s intended result of a chance to reflect on chaos and consequence, inward and outward.
This EP is beautifully haunting, mildly confusing, but, overall, exciting. Think on Your Sins is a surprisingly warm welcome to an underworld mosh pit, and an invitation that seasoned metalheads are sure to accept.
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New Music Revue : Horrenda delivers confusing but exciting EP – Nexus newspaper
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