Band:	Horrendous
Album:	Idol
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	September 2018

01. Prescience
02. Soothsayer
03. The Idolater
04. Golgothan Tongues
05. Divine Anhedonia
06. Devotion (Blood For Ink)
07. Threnody
08. Obolus

A lot of death metal is either ultra-polished technical wankery or derivative old-school worship. And then there's Horrendous, which is a bit of both but without the downsides.

Horrendous are already on their fourth album and, while their debut is a fairly solid but quite meat-and-potatoes album, their previous two have put them on the map of many death metal enthusiasts. Ecdysis and Anareta both saw Horrendous push further and further into more progressive territories while avoiding the pitfalls of the tech death subgenre and it was quite surprising to see both of them to come in consecutive years. Meanwhile, Idol comes three years later; thus, it's understandable that expectations are immensely high, especially after being signed to Seasons Of Mist. But Horrendous deliver.

If the band's past progression from album to album is to be taken into account, we wouldn't be wrong to guess that Idol would take a deep dive further into progressive and technical songwriting. And indeed they do; songs on Idol are crammed with riffs and intricate arrangements, but never drowned in them. Horrendous never feel like they're over-complicating a song just for the hell of it and listening never becomes exhausting, due to how straightforwardly 40 minutes long the album is. Idol has just as much noodling as it needs to have and it never shies away from just going into a more straightforward and raw sound. Everything feels organic and never too chaotic.

What makes Idol so great is that more than just old-school tech death is oozing from it. The vocals feel especially fit for something closer to black metal and the sound does go into thrashier territories at times, and during "Devotion (Blood For Ink)", clean vocals are heard, surprisingly, and the sound reaches almost post-rock territories. The riffs are obviously a big focus, but not far behind are new bassist Alex Kulick's amazing bass lines, which don't get drowned out; the production is clean enough so that all instruments are clearly audible, but not so much that it feels lifeless.

I could throw loads of compliments like "memorable" and "engaging" at Idol, but I still feel I wouldn't do it enough justice. Horrendous manage constantly to push themselves creatively and write music that knows when to be intricate and when to be straightforward while also not shying away from taking a few steps outside of death metal.

Get a taste.