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Lord Of Horns - The Forest At Dusk - Reviewed By The Killchain Blog! Wednesday December 14 2022, 9:33 PM

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Lord Of Horns - The Forest At Dusk - Reviewed By The Killchain Blog ! Check it out here at this link: https://thoseonceloyal.wordpress.com/2022/10/03/review-lord-of-horns-the-forest-at-dusk/

Review by Sandre the Giant

Mysterious New Jersey black metallers Lord of Horns have followed up their very good debut demo ‘Few Ever Survive the Night…’ with their full length debut, ‘The Forest at Dusk’, out now through their Bandcamp and just seeing a rerelease digitally through Blasphemous Creations of Hell. For fans of Emperor and Carpathian Forest, this looks to be a pure and traditional black metal album

After a suitably gloomy intro that explodes into screaming black metal fury, the album proper begins with ‘Nightmare Castle’, an oppressive wave of unrelenting blastbeats that definitely sound programmed to be like The Bezerker but even more oppressive. When the icy black metal melodies appear through this blitzkrieg, there’s something very old school haunting about them, but the savage raw wall of sound approach pretty much kills them off at most junctions. ‘The Screaming Woods’ is definitely more Nattefrost territory, while the darker ‘Purveyor of the Black Book’ cuts back a little on the punishment for a healthy dose of atmosphere. I find Lord of Horns to be a great example of old school, raw as fuck black metal that try to crank the atmosphere into the grimmest place possible but personally there are times when that drum machine is too raw for me.

‘Graveless Wraiths’ is a perfect example of how good Lord of Horns can be; grim icy melody lines held in place by a nasty rasp and a sensible level of percussive chaos., and ‘Witch of the Wood’ combines those elements really well to make one of my favourites of the year. As the album goes on, that overdistorted wall of blasting is less frequent as the songwriting evolves and twists new songs into shape. ‘Screams of the Oskorei’ flirts between the inspired and the deafening; ghostly black metal riffs claw at the air but are suffocating under a miasmic cloud. ‘Nocturnal Crusade’ has a number of eerie, early 90s black metal riffs as well as some nice keyboard stuff and really brings the like of Carpathian Forest to the fore with this occult and raw sound.

I suppose it is deliberately lo-fi but there is definitely more in here that is sadly lost beneath a cacophonous drumming assault at times. ‘The Forest at Dusk’ is raw black metal at its best and worst, where the savage monochromatic nature is excellent but can prove to be a challenging endurance at times. It’s a work in progress, and more listens does help that initial impression to fade into an album that holds a lot of potential. ‘The Forest at Dusk’ definitely has a gold medal for atmosphere creation and purity, but it’d be up to you dear readers whether all that noise works for you. - The Killchain Blog

Release Date: July 11, 2022

FFO: Emperor, Darkthrone, Carpathian Forest

Location: NJ, USA

Departing from his previous projects, Lord of Horns ventures out on his own to reconnect with his natural elements of dark artistry. Returning to pure Black Metal inspired by horror, dark fantasy, and Norse paganism, his compositions integrate the savage speed of the genre with somber melodies creating dramatic scores full of atmosphere and harshness.

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