‘I genuinely don’t know if I’ll hear another album quite like this for the rest of my life.‘
-David Rodriguez
Release date: October 30, 2015 | Dark Descent | Facebook
Death metal has been around for a good few decades now, which makes it all the more daunting a task to really leave an impression amongst the greats and unsung heroes of the genre. And yet, Horrendous have taken up the mantle and skillfully made their way into the upper echelon. Evolving with every new release, 2015’s Anareta marks the point at which it became apparent that this isn’t your ordinary death metal band – this band was audibly going for something deeper.
David Rodriguez
This is the first time in a while I’ve done an ASIR solo and damn, I picked a good one to do. I promise I won’t take up too much of your time.
Truth of the matter is this album was my pick – while there are other members of EIN that are into or like Horrendous, I don’t believe any of them have as visceral a connection to this band as I do. They were instrumental to my growth in exploring extreme metal in the mid-2010s. Although I can’t remember exactly how I found them, my habits around that time mean it was either some metal website that covered them or maybe Anthony Fantano shouting them out (no full review of their first three albums exist on The Needle Drop as far as I can tell).
Starting with Ecdysis in 2014, they were a grittier take on death metal than I was accustomed to. What I would learn later was more of an old-school death metal revival sound, Horrendous exhibited all the things I loved about metal: melody, weight, and a tightness that other bands should envy. Going back to their first album, The Chills was relatively straightforward; a good show from a burgeoning band still finding their footing and identity. Ecdysis was when more genre fans and underground metal goblins took notice, seeing (and hearing) the nuances in writing and performance that began to set them apart from peers (“Nepenthe” is still one of their best tracks). Then Anareta came, the veritable ‘oh shit’ moment when people, including me, realized this was going to be a special band.
To be very upfront, I think Anareta is a very rare 10/10 album personally, a functionally perfect sub-45-minute album that doesn’t squander a single moment, riff, or track. It’s the monolithic album that we always hear about from those a generation or two above us waxing poetic (and likely stoned) about – maybe they ranted about an Iron Maiden album (yeah, I get it), Judas Priest (hey, all right), or something more salient like Pink Floyd (okay, boomer). Agree with those or not, it’s a representation and trope all the same. Everything just clicks on a level that I can’t think of many other bands or albums achieving since 2015, especially in death metal.
It’s a philosophical album too – eschewing, or at least benching, the menacing, gory side of the genre, this fits more alongside the likes of Death’s Human or Symbolic, maybe Cynic a bit too. The first two songs are great set dressing for these themes. “The Nihilist” weaves existential lyrics echoing and referencing some of our most prominent thinkers through calculated, sweeping moments of dazzling guitar melodies, stomping drum work, and jutting bass flourishes. Through shrilled vocals, singer Damian Herring belts out ‘I am everyman/I am everything/I am nothing/I am/I am not’. “Ozymandias” is slower and more deliberate with a bigger payoff on themes, dealing with the same inevitability of crumbling empire and power as the famous poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley of the same name. Some of the best riff work is on this song only to be challenged by the next, and the next, and the next…
That’s the beauty of Anareta – it’s personal opinion which songs are best or better, but there’s always going to be a new idea, a new execution on each track to salivate over. Maybe you like the shrouded weight of the nightmarish “Polaris” complete with guitar leads that sound like unseen banshees in the dark. “Sum of All Failures” pump fakes your ass with a gorgeous acoustic intro, then bulldozes you down on the floor with the biggest burst of energy that Horrendous have ever put to tape. “Siderea” is genuinely one of the best metal instrumental tracks I’ve ever heard, a far cry from the usual interlude or atmospheric aside, up there with the coolest and most foreboding ones like Cannibal Corpse’s “From Skin to Liquid”. “Stillborn Gods” is arguably the grooviest on the album too.
Anareta is unquestionably the most diverse, yet consistent Horrendous album too. As referenced before, The Chills was solid, but mostly by the numbers modern death metal with some old school, thrashy flare. Ecdysis was the cracking of the band’s egg showing off new, cool ideas and maturation that made metal fans excited for the future. After Anareta, 2018’s Idol leaned hard into their progressive tendencies to form their weirdest album yet, relatively speaking anyway. And finally, 2023’s Ontological Mysterium took the Anareta formula and broadened it a bit more for somewhat of a return to form with extra goodness and mythological grandiosity the band hadn’t tossed in yet, their second best album by a solid margin. Each one’s a treat to listen to for different reasons and there’s a reason why they are my favorite modern death metal band.
Even still, Anareta stands a full head above the rest. When I think of death metal in general, Anareta is somewhere in the mix. It’s become emblematic of the genre to me, and I’ll concede it likely hit so hard for me because of where I was in my metal exploration when it came out, but I’d also challenge most any death metal fan that hasn’t heard it to check it out and not be impressed by something on here. You desire shredding, it has some. You like catchy melodies, Anareta is flush with them. You want smart metal, put that thinking cap on and hit play, nerd. I genuinely don’t know if I’ll hear another album quite like this for the rest of my life.
