Horisont - Sudden Death review
| Band: | Horisont |
| Album: | Sudden Death |
| Style: | Hard rock |
| Release date: | May 15, 2020 |
| A review by: | nikarg |
01. Revolution
02. Free Riding
03. Pushin' The Line
04. Into The Night
05. Standing Here
06. Runaway
07. Gråa Dagar
08. Sail On
09. Breaking The Chain
10. Hold On
11. Archaeopteryx In Flight
Horisont is a group of Swedes clearly living in the wrong timeline. Everything about them screams 'seventies'. The sound of the band, the style of their songs, even their own image; you look at the band photos and you'd bet that they are an old band whose heyday was more than four decades ago. But hey, we could say the same about Opeth nowadays, couldn't we?
The band describes their music as hard rock but there is not a lot of 'hard' stuff going on here. This is not a bad thing at all but, if you want to make an album that has both its feet on AOR territory and goes as far as to touch on The Beatles, you need to back it up with exciting material. Sudden Death is an album filled with piano and keyboards, and it is fun to listen to for a few songs, but it soon gets tiring and uneventful. It has a partying vibe for the most part but its linear character and the complete lack of anything uniquely personal and/or contemporary does not allow for the party to be kept alive throughout. While there are some nice moments within songs, the album as a whole is so derivative that it makes it nearly impossible for me to listen to all of it in one sitting.
Horisont are glaringly unoriginal but they are not the only band out there doing something that has been done many times before. The problem is that what they are doing has already been done so much better and with the choice to go for stadium rock music, they just shot themselves on the foot because their songwriting ability is not there yet. Moreover, you need to have a potent vocalist for this style and Axel is not up to the task I am afraid; the beginning of "Hold On" is painfully unsuccessful, to phrase it politely. He does not sing on the closer, "Archaeopteryx In Flight", but this song is not much more than a long instrumental jam session, pretty disjointed and feeling as different parts of different songs have been stitched together; so, more of a rehearsal, less of a song.
If Sudden Death gets you hooked with sounds you've never heard before, try listening to some Thin Lizzy, Uriah Heep, UFO, or even Dire Straits, ELO and Foreigner. Then, we can talk again about this album.
And that cover art? what were they thinking?
"I don't care what you say
It don't matter anyway
Maybe some other day"
 | Written on 18.06.2020 by Only way to feel the noise is when it's good and loud! |
Comments
Comments: 7
Visited by: 57 users
| RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff Posts: 9134  |
If you're gonna make your music as close as possible to a pre-existing sound, at least make an effort to also sound good.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62297  |
I miss sudden Dead it supose be modo and björklöven year, Luleå as well, if we look at artwork. I like you said they do what had been done nu other bands but much better. I like bands and not ms dB bands what you listen. I think radu can add all.
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| John_Doe Posts: 5210  |
I like this band, 4 is such a low rating, I'm gonna listen and see if I agree or not with the review and rating. 
---- I thought the two primary purposes for the internet were cat memes and overreactions.
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7516  |
Written by John_Doe on 19.06.2020 at 14:07 It is indeed a low rating. 0 for originality, about 5-6 for songwriting, performance-wise not bad for everyone involved but the vocalist who is bland as fuck. AOR is a difficult style to play and be good at it, if you ask me. Let me know what you think when you listen 
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| John_Doe Posts: 5210 |
Written by nikarg on 19.06.2020 at 14:44 I've just finished listening to it. I understand your point of view and I agree with a few things, although i wouldn't be as harsh as you. The vocals were never that great, but on this album, the vocalist is rather incompetent at times, in over his head, he can't pull it off. You mentioned Foreigner, imagine these songs sung by someone like Lou Gramm (whether one likes them or not, Lou Gramm is an excellent singer, powerful, expressive). As for originality, this band was a pastiche or homage from day one, so it would be ridiculous of me to expect originality right now. It's not bad but not that good of an album, their weakest for now. Odyssey (2015) remains their best work for me, the Horisont album I listened to the most. With a better vocals/vocalist, I'd be praising this a lot. But the vocalist is the weak link here. For example the vocalist of Night Flight Orchestra is not impressive that much for me either, but he's doing a much better job which allows repeated listens. I don't know if or when I'm gonna give this Horisont album more listens.
---- I thought the two primary purposes for the internet were cat memes and overreactions.
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7516 |
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| ScreamingSteelUS Editor-in-Chief Admin Posts: 6090  |
For about the first song and a half, I thought that this review was much too harsh. I was enjoying it and I thought they were onto a really cool sound like Church Of The Cosmic Skull or Blues Pills or somebody who could pull off the classic rock revival well. The longer it went on, though, the more I realized I'm terribly annoyed by the whole shtick. The vocals are definitely the most obnoxious part and went from "cool" to "grating" within the first ten minutes of the album, but there's some quality to the instrumentation that I can't quite grasp but is equally irritating. Now I think your review is spot-on.
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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