Black Soul Horde – Horrors from the Void
Release Date: 10th November 2021
Label: Vinyl Sound
Bandcamp
Genre: Heavy Metal
FFO: Grand Magus, Iced Earth, Cirith Ungol, Twisted Tower Dire.
Review By: Séamus Patrick Burke
Who doesn’t love Cosmic Horror? Ancient and decrypt evils rising from the briny deep, tons of sinister names we can’t pronounce, and bizarre descriptions like “teeth that were the color of shadow.” H.P. Lovecraft truly inspired something greater than himself, and considering his real-life neuroses and prejudices, maybe it’s best that the genre has outgrown its creator (seriously, never Google the name of Lovecraft’s pet cat).
The Cthulu mythos has passed back and forth between different authors, and the author we land on today is a band; Greek power-metal trio Black Soul Horde. Talk about striking when the iron is hot. Their previous LP, Land of Demise, came out less than a year ago, and here we have a fresh disc with 2021’s Horrors from the Void. You’d think burnout would set in, but Black Soul Horde know the score when it comes to power metal; intricate riffs, punishing drums, and epic vocals about ancient gods and monsters. This isn’t music for a Friday night out on the town, it’s music to play when a wizard is summoning a monster from the inside of a dark mountain.
Speaking of mountains, that plays into the title track. “Beneath the Mountains of Madness” hits right out of the gate with chiming bells and furious riffs. Guitarist John Tsiakopoulos both produced and mixed this record, and he achieves great synergy with lead guitarist Costas Papaspyrou across the LP. The playing owes to the great twin-lead guitar bands like Maiden and Priest. “Lair Of The Wolf” has a riff intricate enough to appear on Powerslave, and tracks like “Beware the Deep” and “The Betrayal of the King” make great use of the guitar talents at hand. That’s not the Horde’s only mode, though; the octave bass, spoken word, and slow groove of “Malediction of the Dead” are more reminiscent of early Melvins than early Maiden.
Vocalist Jim Kotsis gives us an impressive wail, particularly with the monster vocals on “Blinding Void”, a song that achieves the rare feat of feeling breezy despite its six-minute length. Sadly, though, he is let down by the mix. The reverb drowns out his performance so much that the intended lyrical themes don’t amount to much, even if the production and performances are impressive. Even the final track “The Horde” doesn’t build up to much of a conclusion for all of the bombast it brings.
This naturally leads to nitpicks about what kind of appeal Horrors of the Void can have. Power metal nerds like us eat this kind of stuff for breakfast, but even we admit we’re a very specialized niche. The twin lead riffs and blast beats definitely have an appeal for your modern metal fan, but the vocals and lyrical themes may not. Or rather, the lyrical themes are so unclear thanks to the performances and production, it becomes difficult to parse at times. Black Soul Horde have an epic dark tale to tell us, and we can’t make out a single word. Black Soul Horde are undeniably good at what they do, but what they do is so specific it’s hard to recommend them for everyone. If you want intense riffs and beats behind songs about gods and monsters, this is where you want to go. Other than that, you might feel left adrift at sea.
(3.5 / 5)
