Horn Of The Rhino - "Grengus"

This is the bands 4th release overall, but their 2nd under the moniker Horn Of The Rhino. When this devastatingly heavy band, reigning from Bilbao,Spain, first stampeded onto the doom metal scene they dropped 2 crushing releases under the name of Rhino. After legal battles over the name ensued, they changed the name of this beastly 3 piece to Horn Of The Rhino, which personally I feel gives a little more insight to just how brutal and piercing their sound is. 2012 bring us the unholy 8 song mammoth knows as "Grengus". A little faster, a little louder and alot angrier than their first 3 releases, Horn Of The Rhino wastes no time in unleashing pure fury with the albums opening tracks "Under The Hoof" and "A Pile Of Severed Heads". These songs call to mind a distinct influence of High On Fire, mixed with the sludgy down-tuned riffing of Crowbar when theyre playing more up-tempo pieces. A little thrashy, maybe even a touch of punk executed Motorhead style, meets dark Sabbath fueled riffs collected from the bottom of the murkiest swamps in New Orleans. It's not all speed and fury here though, HOTR slows things down considerably with the album's title track and "Drowned In Gold". It's here in these slow dirges that vocalist/guitarist Javier Galvez drops his raspy death growls and shows us what his vocal chords are truly about, crooning over epic, tarry riffing in the style of Chris Cornell and Layne Staley! Talk about a huge breath of fresh of air in the doom scene, I cant make it past the halfway point of this album without shaking my head and wondering why this band isnt signed to the likes of Metal Blade or Century Media and touring the world. "Waste For Ghouls" kick us straight in the face for over 3 minutes of pure blasting fury and kicks out enough dirty riffs that would make Matt Pike himself smile and nod in approval. "Awaken Horror Of Tuul" keeps the tempo up and keeps the angry attitude red-lined for 4 straight minutes with it's barrage of guitar riffs, demonic growls and a low end so low it'll make everything and everyone around you within earshot cower in fear. The 11 minute epic "Brought Back", kicks in with a deep piano piece and Javier's soulful Cornell-esque mournful moan, then proceeds to almost hypnotize the listener with riffs so slow and heavy they'll make your back hurt, remember when you pick this disk up to put it in your stereo, lift at the knees! "To Ride The Leviathan" closes out this massive disk on an uptempo note with more High On Fire/Motorhead worship and sonic destruction. Trust me when I say I truly love this band, their previous 3 releases are absolute gems, but I believe "Grengus" to be Horn Of The Rhino's seminal masterwork so far in their early career. If you like Crowbar, High On Fire, Black Sabbath, Alice In Chains and "Badmotorfinger" era Soundgarden, then Horn Of The Rhino is your new favorite band that you havent heard yet. Go find them on Facebook, hit that "Like" button, buy a copy of "Grengus" and tell them you want to see them in the USA!