Lord of Horns, a solo artist from the United States, released his new album The Forest at Dusk on July 11th, 2022. Appeal to fans of extreme black metal bands such as Carpathian Forest, Dissection, Emperor, and Satyricon.
Introduction:
Lord Of Horns, The Forest at Dusk: This review will evaluate every aspect of the album, from its intricate musical composition to its production. Our analysis will provide valuable insights to help you determine if this album is worth adding to your collection.
The First Three Sins of The Forest at Dusk
Let’s start by discussing the first three sins of Lord Of Horns and his album, The Forest at Dusk.
The First Sin, The Strings/Keys: Features raw, and blazing (distorted) riffage with dark tremolo pickings and additional atmospheric/ambient keys. The Second Sin, The Vocals: Involves torturing and demonic vocals. The Third Sin—The Percussions: Delves into the vast world of demonic drumming and grind-blazing blast beats, with additional Ritualistic/tribal or chanting drumming.
The Fourth Sin: Overall Discussion: Horror-infused score, takes the listener on a journey through shady woodlands
Immediately the listener presses that play button, one is welcomed to the opening track, The Forest At Dusk, which welcomes the listener with an opening of clean acoustic and spoken words. Without warning, a surge of an extreme nightmare of instrumentation and nightmarish vocals is unleashed upon the listener’s ears.
As one continues their dark journey, with the second track, Nightmare Castle, and the nine remaining pieces, each song is like flicking through different pages. Where each piece tells its own story and is enveloped into one anthology (a collection of (eleven)) short dark fantasy and horror stories. Black metal with a horror-infused score takes the listener on a perilous journey through shady woodlands (read like ‘The Dark Tower Series’ by Nox Arcana) each track traverses more plunging into the wooded abyss and encountering natural and supernatural villains.
At the same time, (as mentioned in the previous review (down below)) it’s not just the dark lyrics that bring the music alive – but the drum work that brings the music alive. As one wanderer through the dark forest, one will encounter drum artistry, which changes aggression, tempo/mood, sound, and atmosphere (capturing each song theme/storytelling) with a feeling of ‘demonic elves’ behind the drums. Ritualistic/tribal or chanting drumming, or an atmosphere/sound of being chased by a dark entity, etc.
Simultaneously, Lord Of Horns creates and provides the listener’s ears with a black metal that’s more than black metal, but a dark and genuine horrid black metal drenched with a pure raw-underground attitude of being recorded in a forbidden crypt.
Extreme music that allures the listener with its nightmare of fear-factory and dread and dark storytelling atmosphere.
Which is all composed and arranged by well-executed and excellent devilmanship, including the eleven equally solid, strongly composed and well-executed songwriting/music which utilises various characteristics into the musical spectrum.
Which is convenient to place at the right moment, such as adding this dark atmosphere, the burst of bestial/war metal chaos serge, short epic/theatrical symphonic inserts, dark and blazing (distorted) riffage/tremolo pickings and dark-sounding melodies. Raw and energetic drum patterns/beats and various drum artistry mentioned before, audio clips, cold-nightmarish snarls/screams and diverse moods/atmosphere.
If one dares to capture and go deeper with the music, channel the music through a set of headphones after seducing your speakers with this horror piece and not to be missed, fans of raw/old-school and bestial black metal.
The album comes to an end with the last song, Nocturnal Crusade. We want to give a shoutout to Lord Of Horns for letting us review his album, The Forest at Dusk. Now, we’re going to wrap it up by talking about the final three sins and concluding the review.
You’re Listening to “The Forest at Dusk”
PlayThe Last Three Sins
Let’s discuss the last three sins, our thoughts on Lord Of Horns and his album, The Forest at Dusk.
The Fifth Sin, The Memorabilia: After reviewing and listening to The Forest at Dusk, I knew this release would be a fruit of art gem. Lord Of Horns has pulled off an incredible treasure -that’s pure underground, raw, full of energy, and heavy/brutal but also dark and entertaining. Making each piece sound (capturing) different – if one is reading a different story.
The Sixth Sin, The Artwork:
Foretells the lyrical theme but also has this atmospheric black metal and dungeon synth feel and look.
The Seventh Sin, Disrelish:
Nothing to disrelish within the musical spectrum of Lord Of Horns, and his album, The Forest at Dusk.
This concludes the Lord Of Horns, The Forest at Dusk review.
Track-Listing:
- The Forest at Dusk
- Nightmare Castle
- The Screaming Woods
- Purveyour of the Black Book
- Graveless Wraiths
- Witch of the Wood
- Ritual Hunt
- Through the Woods
- Screams of the Oskorei
- The Sacrifice
- Nocturnal Crusade
Lord Of Horns is:
- Lord Of Horns – all instruments, vocals
