Premiere: Valgrind Usher In The Blackest Horizon
Punishing death metal – because you deserve it.
Valgrind have been kicking around the Italian metal scene for quite a few years now, but there’s a good chance you aren’t familiar with the name. Today, that will change. For today we’ve got an exclusive premiere of the title track from their upcoming powerhouse of an album, Blackest Horizon. Hit play and read on…
‘The Blackest Horizon’ sets the mood with an almost serene synth segment, hinting at the sci-fi theme of the record, lulling you into a false sense of security before the ship suddenly starts shuddering violently and you feel the immense gravitational pull of the planet below take control, pulling you towards the core, and well…your death. From there the guitars and drums feed off each other, exhibiting attention to properly building a passage’s dynamic, rather than just beating it out in a linear fashion, something genre-kings Morbid Angel could have spent a little more time fleshing-out on their latest. After a brief and (deliberately?) unsettlingly mixed lead lick (ala Death), we’re exposed to an unholy triumvirate of vocal styles, a potent Tardy x Schuldiner x VanDrunen combo. And while you could definitely make a case for the band fitting into the early Pestilence mould, the Floridian sound traits are undeniably strong.
The title track is but a microcosm of the overall record; Blackest Horizon has a very welcome breadth of scope relative to many other albums of its ilk, functioning as a comprehensive compendium of classic death metal presented in an engaging yet extremely unequivocal manner. Blackest Horizon recalls many of the stylistic elements of 90’s USDM albeit with a more modern production value, sprinkles in some Mediterranean-flavoured melody, spacey-synths, warped leads, loads it all up into a hadron collider and smashes that shit together, with unpredictable results. Sure, the fundamental particles may be familiar, but the way they react with one another keeps things interesting. Grab your notepad/calendar and rip out the 25th of May, you’ll be occupied that day.
Pre-order your copy of Valgrind‘s Blackest Horizon through Everlasting Spew Records on CD (+T-Shirt) or digitally on their Bandcamp page.
