Blodskam

I've found out about this band by pure accident. First I saw an advert of Moribund Rex in Zero Tolerance Magazine, so I googled the band name to see who they are. It turned to be some sort of "all star" band of the guys, who used to play in "once excellent" In Battle, but also in Odhinn. Hmm, usually the "all star" thing doesn't work for me, at least not in black metal, but I gave a try to Horde of Hel and got the mp3. Two listenings later I was on some distro websites looking for the CD and buying it. Yeah, I liked it that much. I got the CD soon after and must say there was a week, when I was listening to it like addiction. Shame there are no lyrics in the booklet, but surely you may enjoy its layout, with all these creepy, disturbing photos, my favourite being probably the one with a girl painting a word "kaos" on a chest of hanged Asian dude (good photoshop work hehe).

Musically Horde of Hel plays kind of avantgarde black metal. In that aspect "Blodskam" combines the black metal feeling, with industrial and lots of ambiental passages, in result creating a dark, sinister, eerie and morbid atmosphere. It does intrigues and I must advice to listen to the whole album at once, to me it's useless to pick just half of the songs and listen to them. Only by listening to the entire album, from the start to the end, you'll be able to capture its essence and devour it. And trust me, it will, unless you're an orthodox, who likes only the most primitive and obscure styles.

I also think it would be useless to describe each detail of "Blodskam", as there are so many different layers to it, so many strange things happening here, that it would need to be described in too many details. Not a single song sounds the same as another one, and not always it is (black) metal, few of them are just kind of intros or ambient songs, which underline the atmosphere and sometimes sound really great, like "Blott Tvivel & Skam", which is more of martial, neoclassical song, very much in the vein of great Puissance. Those ambiental passages play almost a main role in the scheme of the album, they glue all these songs together. Someone may say that they actually interrupt and the band, instead of slashing with the black metal riffing is constantly shifting the styles, instead of focusing on one thing. But personally I don't think so, the way "Blodskam" is composed is perfect, it's original and as I already said, the atmosphere is just blood freezing and cold as fuckin hell.

As for the metal songs they're also much diverse and they range from the satanik, uncompromising and devastating fury in the vein of Mysticum in "Leave Life Behind" or "Domen Mot Människan" and Aborym in "Born Again into Submission" or "The Glory of Massmurder", with its marching rhythm, but also through the madness of DHG in "Visdomen Kallas Döden" and "Ashborn" to the almost Morgul like melancholy of "Död, Naturens Val". But I would put Aborym as the main influence for Horde of Hel, as the traces of this band can be found in many songs, like "Dödens Ara". Mind that most of these songs have been played in slow, sometimes almost doomy tempos, "Visdomen Kallas Döden" being its one of the most intriguing examples, but that also works for me well, especially that the riffs are great, the extras in the songs - like the industrial sounds or orchestral fillings - sound killer and so does the harsh, but varied vocals.

“Död, Naturens Val” is definitely my favourite and most standout tracks on "Blodskam", but it's also one of the most surprising tunes, it closes the album in not so anticipating melancholic and highly melodic way, with quite catchy, but still sorrowful main riff and great melodic guitar leads, of which the one from the 3rd minute totally reminds me the classic Amorphis! Anyway, this is great track, I absolutely love it, just like the whole album, which is stunning and very engaging.

And for the end, just a small quotation from the band's myspace website: "HORDE OF HEL WANTS YOUR BLOOD !! THIS IS IT, THE DOWNFALL OF MANKIND AND ALL LIFE!!!!!!!! HORDE OF HEL REPRESENT TOTAL ANNIHILATION OF LIFE,LOVE AND ALL THAT STAND FOR KINDNES AND CARE!!!! WE HATE EVERYTHING!!!!"

Standout tracks: "Domen Mot Människan", “Död, Naturens Val”, "Leave Life Behind"

Though recruiting their members from different Swedish black and death metal bands (In Battle, Abyssos, Odhinn to name but a few), HORDE OF HEL are far from being just another all-star project sounding mostly like their main bands. No, HORDE OF HEL’s debut album “Blodskam” is far more than just the sum of it’s parts. The reason for this clearly being the fact, that the pitch black brew of black metal with some minor death influences is enhanced by big doses of dark ambient and martial industrial soundscapes, which not only come along as intros or interludes but are often directly woven into the songs and greatly create an apocalyptic imaginery of war-torn wastelands. So much for the figurative description of HORDE OF HEL’s sound. But it’s the actual music that matters, right? Here we go:

After an ill-natured and malignant intro track, HORDE OF HEL start “Blodskam” with two crushing black metal songs. “Leave Life Behind” and “Born Again Into Submission” both are full of sawing riffs, fast double bass attacks and a great industrial stomping sound. “Hail To Chaos” then merges together dark ambient and industrial music to create a very eerie atmosphere. This is further enhanced by layered synth parts which also add a lot to the build up atmosphere of a near post-apocalyptic future. “The Glory Of Mass Murder” and “Dödens Era” are the first tracks combining all the former heard attributes of HORDE OF HEL’s music. Here you get massive black metal songs infused with the mentioned dark ambient soundscapes and also strange spoken word passages, which add a lot to the imaginery of post-WWIII city skeletons haunted by the last echoes of mankind.

The middle part of “Blodskam” unfortunately slightly drops in quality. The following tracks are not really bad but can’t match the quite fantastic former tracks. Compared to those they sound a bit uninspired and sometimes loose themselves in a too generic black metal sound with more or less pointless double bass usage. Thankfully HORDE OF HEL regain strength in the last third of “Blodskam”. With “Legacy Of Venegance” and especially “Ashborn” they once again managed to create a stunning blend of black metal and industrial, which is pushed on a higher level by adding not only dark ambient but also organs, doomy church bell sounds and a form if apocalyptic choir, hailing the downfall of man. “Död, Naturens Val” then closes the album in a quite surprisingly melodic and melancholic way while still sounding desolate and cold, metaphorically spoken turning away from the wasteland scenario into utter and final blackness.

All in all HORDE OF HEL have put out a highly promising debut album full of great ideas and offer a new approach of blending various dark and different music genres to a fitting whole. “Blodskam” is an incredibly strong debut and even with the mentioned drop of quality I highly recommend it to any fan of both black metal and dark industrial music. Damn, I wonder how crushing the possible successor will sound. Can’t wait for it….