HORNED ALMIGHTY "To Fathom The Master's Grand Design"

HORNED ALMIGHTY

"To Fathom the Master's Grand Design"

Album number six here from Denmark's HORNED ALMIGHTY, whom I have enjoyed in the past. They continue their workman-like but mostly pleasing mish-mash of death, black and thrash metal on "To Fathom The Master's Grand Design". There is something vaguely mechanical about the way they approach their craft, but they are also admirable because they just get right down to brass tacks and starting laying into an angry selection of tunes.

Production here is probably the cleanest ever for the HORNED Ones and if I was to be a nit picky bastard, I'd say they are better off when they leave things a bit rougher. Still, it's a pleasure to hear a thick and juicy bass tone. The 8 tracks here do not obliterate but they satisfy in that "craftsman-like way". Even track names like "Apocalyptic Wrath" and "Devouring Armageddon" sound cobbled together in some great factory of all-purpose death/black song names. Those tracks still rock, though, and I think HORNED ALMIGHTY is a bit more thrashy this time than they have been in the past. There's always been a kind of swaggering groove to them as well, best heard on the CELTIC FROST-like "Antagonism Eternal"  and "The Great Death".

There are also a few slower, more atmospheric bits than one is accustomed to hearing from these fiends. That's all they are, though...just bits, and they don't slow things down to much. I guess at the end of the day, "To Fathom The Master's Grand Design" is just a solid example of modern blackened death.

SCARLET RECORDS

HORNED ALMIGHTY