Summoning Deliverance ultimately follows up on the more aggressive approach employed on the previous Grengus album, and is perhaps Horn Of The Rhino at their most furious yet. There's a notable extreme influence felt throughout the album, approaching more thrash/death metal structures, and some tracks, such as "Exvenstench" and "Their Tombs," are just downright violent. Thankfully though, the sludgey feeling is still retained above all else in the crunchy guitar tone, and there are a a few slower, groovier tracks as well.
And as usual, frontman Javier Galvez, probably the defining feature of the band, continues to amaze with his excellent pipes. Whether it's his relentless snarls during the music's intense moments, or his more relaxed cleans on "Onward Through Domination" and the totally epic "Deliverance Prayer," the man definitely knows how to deliver (see what I did there?), and further proves himself as one of the most potent vocalists sludge has to offer. The only issue I found here is that his clean vocals are really a bit underdeveloped on this album, and it would've been nice if they'd seen more prevalence, because they really are quite mindblowing.
All in all though, Summoning Deliverance stands as a pretty well accomplished album in Horn Of The Rhino's discography, even if it does offer up a slight change of pace for their sound. The music honestly leans more towards the more ruthless death/sludge mix, and thus fans of the riff heavy approach taken on Weight Of Coronation and earlier may be slightly disappointed. Nonetheless, the music is still unquestionably Horn Of The Rhino's, and these Spanish conquistadors don't appear to be losing their luster anytime soon.
Bitchin album art too
Go get crushed.
