Furious and unrelenting, brutal and creatively ruthless, Avarice is the debut album from metallers HorrorHead and a release which, even as we cowered before its callous savagery, had ears devouring every destructive tendency.
HorrorHead is an Australian outfit with its members based in Sydney and Los Angeles. The band consists of guitarist Cliff Newman and vocalist Rob Smith, the latter already well-known to us as the frontman of the equally gripping Aussie incitement Age Of Menace. The duo has bred a sound which is primal and predatory in every breath and touch but equally fertile in melodic twists and imagination stoked enterprise. Certainly it is a proposition which incessantly and hungrily harasses the senses; a beast nurtured in a broad fusion of metal styles which bludgeons its victims with voracious riffs and barbarous rhythms with it all courted by equally feral grooves loaded with an unabated appetite but one just as readily content in exploring an unpredictable array of melodic and inventive twists. It makes for a crushing and rousing trespass which had has hooked and fiercely roaring at the world alongside.
Mixed by Mike Spreitzer (DevilDriver), Avarice opens up with End For You. Instantly it launches a thick tide of riffs, equally esurient grooves twisting around the trespass as harsh rhythms fly. As ruthless as it is, the assault is stubbornly contagious, even as Smith’s throats unleashes a vitriolic cry followed by a just as uncompromising harsh attack in voice and word. Rhythms continue to bully and incite as Newman’s sonic dexterity lays vicious temptation rich bait of. A cauldron of thrash, groove and death metal with more besides, the track sets the release off to a striking uncompromising start swiftly backed and built upon by its title track.
Avarice similarly sets about the senses from its first breath, bestial grooves worming under the skin before refining it to a nagging intimidation ridden by Smith’s similarly belligerent declarations. Defiance and hostility soaks every syllable shaped and launched, rhythms matching the discontent without defusing the track’s infernally infectious character, one only accentuated by the diversity in voice, enterprise, and Newman’s guitar craft.
Across the following pair of Demons Inside and Hell Awaits, HorrorHead continue to abuse and arouse, the first as bloodthirsty as its predecessors yet sharing a richer blend of melody spun grooves amidst murderous rhythms and riffs. Simultaneously, Smith aligns his raw throats attack with the cleaner style he already has revealed his prowess at with his former band. It is a mix which definitely helped shape a favourite track moment though its mercurial landscape of sound was just as fundamental before the second of the two herds its riffs and venom through ears with virulent animosity. Again the band’s mix of voracious flavours merges in feral rancour, its creative blitz honed in animalistic catchiness.
Lyrically Avarice is as argumentative and confrontational as the sounds surrounding Smith’s challenges worldly and intimate targets consumed as the senses and imagination, Hate Me a fine example with its inexorable animus in ferocity and emotion coming equipped with riveting contrasts of menace gripped calms and melody entwined sonic artistry which draws on more classic and progressive metal seeds. Another major highlight, it is straight away matched in adventure and magnetism by Blood And Anger. Its initial carnal assault is entwined in pleasure feeding threads, the subsequent appetite ravishing of grooves upping the persuasive ante as again Smith shares throat raw venting. In turn Newman’s following web of melodic strands only intensifies the lure and tempting of the track, its cunning untamed nagging the constant fuel to a building addiction.
Through the causticity showered baiting of Bring The House Down and the even more violently disposed conflict of Death Awaits, the album thickened its hold; both tracks greedily and mercilessly niggling at welcoming ears whilst casting individual webs of magnetic animosity amidst increasing discontent with their successor, Wasted Lives, arguably unleashing the album’s most viral grooves within its untamed punk lined face-off with the world.
As with all tracks, every listen reveals the richness of styles and flavouring involved in the hellish infection as epitomised by album closer, Ball Of Rage. Increasingly living up to its title, the track harries and browbeats at every turn whilst honing a kaleidoscope of groove woven, pleasure entangling fertility. It is a fine, ear gripping end to a similarly potent release easily drawing fingers to kick the bellicose pleasure off all over again.
There is a touch of a surface similarity across some tracks, though one which increased and proper listening quickly dissolves, and maybe a wish for Smith to bring more of his cleaner ability to the fore for even greater variety but from start to finish Avarice proved a striking and thrilling introduction to HorrorHead which has only grown more gripping by the play.
Avarice is out now on Hype Music on iTunes and Spotify; Download and license on Extreme Music @ https://www.extrememusic.com/albums/3586
https://www.facebook.com/Horrorheadband/ https://www.instagram.com/horrorheadbandofficial/
Pete RingMaster 18/04/2020
Copyright RingMasterReview: MyFreeCopyright
With the likes of Trivium, Iron Maiden, Arch Enemy, and Countless Skies declared as influences, Earthbound create a tempest borne out of death metal voracity meets melodic metalcore dexterity. It proves a compelling proposition within their new EP, each track adventurous in intent and accomplished in invention. It begins with Of Suffering, the track looming from the distance with open ferocity to quickly explode upon ears. Riffs and grooves invade as rhythms blitz the senses yet immediately there is an instinctive contagiousness which escalates the lure of attention. The raw throated squalls escaping Watson are just as potent a trespass as the sounds around them, the backing yells of Penfold as forcibly eager, but it is with the clean delivery of the former that the track truly ignites. Both sides to his presence provide strong quality but his melodic presence is especially striking. The song itself continues to harass and tempt as it too reveals an enterprise of varying flavours and textures across its dramatic landscape, the EP off to a powerful and impressive start.
It is a great if unsurprising start to the release which is taken up a notch by the following Misanthropic Collapse. From its first breath seriously appetising grooves collude with hunger bearing riffs, rhythms again an imposing attack in the contagion of it all. Once more there is plenty to recognise but there is a freshness which as with its predecessor marks it out before the quickly impressing Repulsive Messiah steps up to prowl the listener within an apocalyptic collage. Within moments it becomes a nagging addiction of guitar as Doblinger stalks the landscape with his predatory words, death metal hues adding to the drama and temptation. Subsequent threads of melodic enterprise vine the confrontation bringing bolder imagination to the band’s sound.
It is a thrilling start which Memories That Last follows and backs with its own inferno of rapacious sound and ear grabbing imagination. More uncompromising by the minute the track provided a quickly testing and swiftly rewarding proposal as imagination fuelled its every invasive throe before the song drifted away and the predatory presence of The Metal forcibly prowled. It was an initial stalking which subsequently erupted into a ruthless trespass, its stroll continuing to menace and bully as the band’s imagination flourished and shaped one enthralling assault marked with individual prowess.
Blood-Red Revolt brought even stronger enticement and incitement to body and pleasure, the track a definite favourite, writhing as it fingers the imagination with its boisterously manipulative and widely flavoursome antics before, following the brief chillingly haunting and increasingly threatening lead of …and Winter Comes, the predacious Inner Plague prowls and teasing the senses with its own venomous but darkly seductive threat. As ever the tenebrific yet tempting growl of Maks’ bass fuels the alluring menacing; constantly keeping the listener on their toes alongside the drums even as melodic flames and enterprise blazes away.
EP opener, Only Shades, comes into view on cold winds, a portentous pulsation accompanying its emergence before guitars entangle the growing intimation. It all veers into a groove driven stalking of the senses, a powerful and sinister stroll loaded with restrained but invasive rhythms and potent throat raw vocals. Those grooves continue to lure keen attention within the similarly inviting if threatening consumption of sound where melodic enterprise and tempestuous intimation only adds to the track’s imposingly stirring presence, the EP off to a highly persuasive and stirring start.
Though metalcore based, the Arkdown sound is a rich union of flavours, death and melodic metal colluding with rapacious grooves and merciless aggression across that instinctive bed. It makes for tracks which even as they directly assault equally fester in the imagination all twisting and turning with imaginative adventure as quickly shown by EP opener, Wake Up. The initial calm of its intro is soon squashed under the following weight of riffs and rhythms from which vocalist Kyle Dawson enticingly scowls and the guitars of Mike Dyson and Mike Walker spin senses ensnaring webs of antipathy wired with fine melodic thread. Swiftly a diversity of sound and vocal attack mingle in the outstanding trespass leaving ears ringing and pleasure greedily rising.
The equally outstanding From Beyond follows, its initial lure new wave-esque amidst swift gothic hued intimation before its black hearted dance emerges. Even then it is a prowling venture of threat and magnetic suggestion; technical death metal dexterity merging with industrial rapacity to increasingly fascinate as its electro instincts escape sonic darklands before the tantalising drama and ungodly seduction of No More envelops and devours the senses. Soaked in malevolence, the track subsequently swings from its sinful crawl into a just as nefarious canter, Crowley-esque hues lining the increasingly transfixing and ravenous encounter.
The excellent start continues with Swallowed by the Dark; a track not as mercurial in the attack of its animosity as in its predecessor but as rabidly venomous. It too shares grooves as viral as they are toxic, the guitar almost dancing on the rhythmic canter of the doom soaked bass splintered by senses splitting beats. It might be death metal bred but the track is prime rock ‘n’ roll, just in the most corrosive form of its incitement.