Horsecore: An Unrelated Story That's Time Consuming

This album is genius. For context, I should explain how much I love the second D.R.I. album ("Dealing With It!"). That album is one of the best hardcore records ever made. It oozes spontaneity and 'slacker' freedom, trashing through 25 songs in 33 minutes with joyous irreverence. The vibe of that album was absent in the death metal and grindcore that followed in its wake. Sure, there were fast, tongue-in-cheek bands like Macabre, but nothing that was versatile or good enough to qualify as a true successor. D.R.I. themselves struggled to follow it up, releasing the dull metal plod known as "Crossover" two years later.

Let's turn attention to Dead Horse instead. These guys, like D.R.I., came from Houston, Texas. Their debut album, "Horsecore: An Unrelated Story That's Time Consuming", is essentially "Dealing With It!" crossed with early Prong and given a death metal edge. This is the perfect blend of speed, quirkiness, musicianship and song-craft. The punk urgency is palpable, the songs are fast and short (16 in 29 minutes), but it feels like a metal album. The guitar tone is pure death metal. The vocals sound like someone gasping for air (i.e., like Necrophagia or Deceased). The drumming is punk-based but incorporates lots of metallic fills. The guitar playing is blistering. The bassist plugs any remaining gaps with funk.

This band took risks. For every well-placed Slayer-ish riff there is a country rock melody or a jaunty Southern rock solo. The riffs are taut, frenzied and angular throughout. Everything happens at light-speed, with plenty of stop-on-a-dime transitions and micro-solos. The production is one of the best and most fitting I have ever heard on a metal record. It sounds powerful, edgy, clear and crisp. All the instruments compete for space, but the band’s ludicrous level of musical talent means that all the musicians manage to find their niche. I hear echoes of the wider American noisy rock underground of the eighties (e.g., bands like Flipper, The Pixies, or Minutemen). The best example of this might be "Bewah", which sounds like a lost Nirvana song from the “Bleach” era (an album that came out at exactly the same time).

Highlights are everywhere. The astonishing "Hank" is the obvious one. This is the most experimental and brazen track, where the band’s country rock fusion is explored to the greatest extent. Imagine a deranged and dangerous combination of the Meat Puppets and the Righteous Pigs, but outstripping both. Elsewhere, I love the punk simplicity of a song like "Forgive", or the grindcore extremity of "Adult Book Store" and "Subhumanity". The downbeat "Scottish Hell" is amazing too, as is the spliced guitar intro of "Crushing of the Irate". The band cover so much ground on this album without ever compromising any intensity, flow or momentum.

Sure, this isn’t an album for the casual listener. It will disorientate, bludgeon and confuse you, and the musical nuances are subtler than they first appear. This is one of those albums that rewards deep listens because there is so much happening. Fans of "Dealing With It!" should view this as the second-coming. I'd argue that it bests that record in many respects. It is also a necessity for anyone who likes experimental death metal and grindcore (it foreshadows the shronky, noisy style that grew popular in the late nineties with bands like Soilent Green). Overall, "Horsecore..." is brilliant from every angle.

For my first review for this site I chose this album, Dead Horse's debut from 1989.

Dead Horse was a very unique band hailing from Houston, Texas that played a type of metal that was not so easy to define. At first listen, with songs like "Murder song", "Born Believing" and "Crushing of the Irate", you got a distinct hard-core/crossover feeling as the songs go from a catchy riff to quick breakdowns with fast drumming and distinct bass throughout, all with the occasional wild bass line, drum fill, or solo flare-up thrown in that suggests the band is capable of great technicality. Then come "Hank" and "Bewah" and the reviewing gets tough. Yes, to some these songs might seem "out of place", "good-humored", or down-right "corny" (a song about a red-neck with countrified solo-ing?! a slow-paced bass-fronted ode to BEER?!) but, man, I gotta tell ya, these songs still whip-ass, get all over the fret board, and ADD to the greatness of the album by their originality and NOT degenerating into the novelty song realm. And then it's back to straight-up thrash with "World War Whatever", a song with a riff as catchy and right in your face as anything by D.R.I. or S.O.D.

EVERY song on this album is good, there is nothing throwaway here. If anyone finds fault in a song on this, I imagine it will be due to matters of taste or preference, not because the record is under produced, underwritten, or underplayed. You can find a damn killer riff in every song with the added bonus of something quirky thrown in, and thrown in from ANY angle--bass, guitar, drums, lyrics...for these reasons you'll find yourself playing this record again and again over the years. And that's the best testament to this old platter (it was originally only available on cassette and vinyl LP): it still retains all of its power or catchiness over the years without having become dated or obsolete or worse--corny (M.O.D., later Exodus). How many truly great, ORIGINAL thrashy/crossover metal records can you say that about? If you are truly looking for something different (listen to the way a scorcher like "Too close to home" is followed up by the psycho "Scottish-Hell" of "Satan kissed my dog" fame, and tell me this record ain't both a banger and original) that still has the riffs to crack yer neck, you could do a lot worse than picking up a copy of this. If you like S.O.D.’s “Speak English or Die” or something mid-years from D.R.I, like “Crossover” or “Thrash Zone”, I have a feeling you’ll love this. I contend that this record is just as good ,if not better, then anything released by those two bands.

Shattering the subservience of the modern perspective of reality with caustic ingenuity, “Horsecore” is a unique slice of Death Metal history that helped in establishing the unforgiving narrative direction of the genre.

Deadhorse manifest the convergence of insurgent “crossover” tirades with the vehement chromatism of Death Metal tremolo riffing. Utilising the raw sonic power of Thrash Metal of the time in transparent proportions, the songs act as sharp bursts that are reminiscent of the approach used by DRI. As the songs progress in a linear fashion there is no room left for a dilution of the overall intention or purpose. There is also a touch of the punk offshoot grindcore, as an anarchist mood prevails, inciting the listener with ravaging anthems and precise rhythmic foray. A feeling of control also resides amongst the chaotic soundscape as the pummelling drums anchor the compositions with fervour, but never dare to create value where value is not needed.

Although the songs are simple, yet provocative in their nature, with the prominent mode of expression revolving around two or three riff structures, there are occasional capricious moments that add a welcome twist. These include blues inspired “country and western” rhythm sections and licks coupled with the occasional interlude of comedic value, ala Nuclear Assault.
This achieves the unique factor that the band is known and reveals a band that dares to strive outside of their comfort zone and towards a higher artistic frontier enshrined in a passionate attitude to life itself. It also derides the foundations of society and assimilated with visceral vocals, ranging from a deep growl to a harsh scream, sets incendiary waves of dissidence upon moderns.

Far from outdated as we near two decades after the event, “Horsecore” is a fine display of a Death Metal culture that refuses to stoop to the mental enslavery of democratic Western society. This album is a thought-provoking work that is an example of what Death Metal would eventually evolve to in the nineties when it set out to light the beacon of change.