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Horrisonous – A Culinary Cacophony

horrisonous – a culinary cacophony

Info

Horrisonous are a five piece Death Metal group from New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Featuring members from such lauded Aussie acts as The Slow Death, Illimitable Dolor, and Golgothan Remains to name but a few; this collection of musicians know their way around the genre, and excel especially at the slower segments. Yonn (or John) McLaughlin is the vocalist, Aled Powell is on drums, Dan Garcia and Stuart Prickett are the guitarists, and Bianca Jamett is on bass; the collective crafts some damn fine Death Metal that leaves nothing but destruction and mayhem in their wake.

I happened upon this group some time after the release of ‘The Plague Doctors’ EP, which I found a great addition to my growing collection of Australian bands. ‘A Culinary Cacophony’ brought me right back to the moment I discovered this group, within the first moments I was cursing myself for having not listened to the EP in a while because of how immensely heavy and cataclysmic their sound is. Considering the band member’s associated acts it is no surprise that the slow doomier parts are absolutely stellar; pairing that with a buzzy Death Metal that speeds up annihilating anything unlucky enough to remain.

‘A Culinary Cacophony’ is really good musically, heavy and doomy in the right amounts held together by top shelf Death Metal. Deviating tempos and styles of attack, the guitars are at the forefront cutting into any flesh it can find; Dan Garcia and Stuart Prickett craft an organically shifting monstrosity and artfully hold it all together. Bianca Jamett aids in the low end with essential bass lines that creep and plod furthering the murky filth this band revels in. Aled Powell, also known on Metal-Archives as Aled Drumlord, is extraordinary on the kit; not a surprise since another group he is involved with, Golgothan Remains, is also incredible on that front.

Horrisonous clearly had some fun writing the songs on this album with the running theme of eating; assuming the lyrics are anything like the names of the songs, some of them may also be hilarious. ‘Kuru Worship’ references a rare disease found in New Guinea among people who ate the brains of the dead in a funeral ritual, ‘Perpetual Mincing’ sounds like an awful way to go just to wind up in a stew, and I’m pretty sure ‘A Tale of Matriphagy’ isn’t about mother’s day. The two titles that always made me smile at their punny name were ‘Crispy Chunks of the Obese’ and ‘The Number of the Feast’.

The thing that never really clicked for me on this album are Yonn’s vocals; split between a low deep growl, and a more Black Metal / Sludge Metal leaning shriek, the former is much more befitting the music than the latter. When the deep growls are the primary vocal force it is far more effective in keeping with the overall sound; with the shrieking it occasionally gets grating, straining the enjoyment of the song. ‘A Culinary Cacophony’ is only flawed in that one aspect, and I might be alone in that assessment, but it is so damn good that you shouldn’t overlook it either way. (Ethan)

Horrisonous

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