Revolting
“Hymns of Ghastly Horror”
2012
Sometimes it is the little musical touches that separate a band from their peers in interesting ways. Revolting is a fairly standard death metal three-piece band coming to us from Sweden. Hymns of Ghostly Horror is the fourth full-length album released by this Swedish trio and thanks to some great song structure and creative musicianship, this is a dynamic death metal album that manages to separate itself from it’s contemporaries. On guitar and vocals we have Revolting Rogga. His guitar riffs are consistently interesting, and he adds the necessary emotion to each song through his playing. He is not just there playing fast, but punctuating the driving, headbanging songs through catchy hooks and tricky riffs. Most of these songs are fast tempo songs, but not so fast that the musical integrity is lost, you can still feel every riff and every lead. As a singer, Rogga is also good. He is traditional, but solid enough to add his own sense of anger and fury to these songs. He usually stays deep, but he can stretch up and hit the raspy high notes when he needs to. Forcefully moving this record on drums is Mutated Martin. His drumming is solid and always in the pocket. And filling the low end, there is Grotesque Tobias. He plays perfectly between and does come up to revel with the other two at times, but mostly he stays in the shadows simply serving the song. There is not a ton of variety on this album however. What it lacks in variety it makes up for with creative playing; making the songs come alive through lively, commanding, and driving playing. One song that really shows this off is the song The Thing That C.H.U.D. Not Be. I am guessing they are referring to the 1984 movie C.H.U.D. Too bad they don’t reference the 1989 sequel, C.H.U.D.II-Bud the C.H.U.D. The Thing That C.H.U.D. Not Be is an instrumental track with voice samples thrown in. It works very well. Overall I enjoyed this album very much. This is not the most powerful, unique, or diverse death metal album you will ever hear, but it is great at what it does, and what it does is give a creative kick-ass experience. Hymns of Ghostly Horror is a great record that will be enjoyed by most anyone that likes the genre.
Tracklist:
1. The Mother of Darkness
2. Their Thoughts Can Kill!
3. Ravenous Alien Spawn
4. Lair of the Black Queen
5. The Thing That C.H.U.D. Not Be
6. Psychoplasmics
7. Prey to Katahdin
8. Kinderfeeder
9. The Hatchet Murders
https://www.facebook.com/Revolting-144322252254789/
Members:
Rogga Johansson – Guitars/Vocals
Grotesque Tobias – Bass
Mutated Martin – Drums
Rating: 8 out of 10
~Kris