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Horn Of The Rhino: Grengus

09/04/12 || gk

Formed in 2004 in Spain, this trio started life by the simple name of Rhino and released two albums before having to change their name due to legal reasons to Horn of the Rhino. Their first album under this new moniker was 2010s superb “Weight of Coronation” and now 2 years on, the trio is ready with the follow up, “Grengus”.

What Horn of the Rhino used to do was a sludgy brand of doom metal that would take its influences from doom, grunge, sludge and death metal and somehow fuse it into one coherent and crushing whole. Over the course of 3 albums, the band became a favourite of mine and I’d been waiting for “Grengus” to turn up for a while now.

At the start, I have to say that this is a slightly different beast. The band has gotten heavier and at times, the songs take on a dirty, pissed off death thrash vibe. Album opener “Under the Hoof” charges out the speakers and it’s quite easy to visualize a stampede to this music. Heavy, bruising and alternating between mid paced groove and up tempo riffing, the song is made even more vile with Javier Galvez’s sick, dry heave like vocals. “Pile of Severed Heads” is up next and has a fantastic opening riff that sort of continues where the first song left off and another inspired performance from Galvez particularly during the title refrain which is more Autopsy than anything else. “Drowned in Gold” is another stand out track for me with a kick ass groove that slowly mutates into a slow and pounding doom riff as Galvez finally let’s loose his clean vocals and Layne Staley impersonation. The song alternates between mid paced pounding with some shouty vocals and a slow and measured doom metal attack. It’s the first time on the album that the band shows off its doom metal side. The mandatory epic on “Grengus” is hidden almost at the end of the album. “Brought Back” is an 11 minute song that goes through various moods and again gives full flight to Galvez’s extraordinary vocal ability. Starting with a sparse piano backing, he starts like a more soulful Pete Stahl of Goatsnake and the song is pretty much a vocal solo for the first 3 minutes but then the main riff kicks in and we enter the gates of doom metal heaven. The album closes with “To Ride the Leviathan” which thrashes out of the speakers in a very High on Fire fashion and ends the album on a strong and aggressive note.

The star of the album is yet again vocalist/ guitarist Javier Galvez. His guitar tone is heavy and dirty while his vocals go from a sick death metal rasp to a grungy Layne Staley style to a soulful singing voice that’s somewhere between Criss Cornell and Pete Stahl. Julen Gil sounds more punk influenced on the faster songs and is solid as ever behind the drum kit while bassist Sergio Robles has a thick heavy tone that usually follows the guitar riff and adds to the heaviness of the songs.

This is a bit of a new chapter for the band. Instead of trying to top the previous albums’ massive doom metal epics, the band has sped up and made things even heavier. Imagine High on Fire’s “Surrounded by Thieves” but more death metal oriented and you’ll get a vague idea of where the band is coming from. Not at all of it works and a couple of songs just whiz past in a blur but overall “Grengus” is another fine addition to the bands high quality discography. Not as good as “Weight of Coronation” or “Dead Throne Monarch” but still a fine album and what may be the start of a new chapter for the band.

Information
Released: 2012
Label: Doomentia Records
Website: Horn Of The Rhino MySpace
Band
Javier Galvez: vocals, guitars
Sergio “Rambo” Robles: bass
Julen Gil: drums

Tracklist
01. Under the Hoof
02. Pile of Severed Heads
03. Grengus
04. Drowned in Gold
05. Waste for Ghouls
06. Awaken Horror of Tuul
07. Brought Back
08. To Ride the Leviathan

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