Satan!

Let us start the review with some quotes from the booklet in order to make this piece more palatable:

True black metal bands declare war to all false groups that promote its stupid and feeble sadness, love and tolerance under apparent "darkness and evilness".

True black metal attacks and destroys the romantic white garbage that erroneously is called "metal" and that spreads as the christendom.

Satan!

Got the idea? Horncrowned are true. Horncrowned are evil. Horncrowned are true black metal! Yes, they are all this and there is even more: they suck. The review could end once a band has been mentioned which has played a major role in the process of composing this album: Dark Funeral. Case closed. End of story. When Infernal from Sweden is referred to as a clone of this band, then Horncrowned may be described as the true one. Yet, the story does not end there. War from Sweden have used some hilarious lyrics on their recordings and this band from Columbia does their best to overdo it even more. For instance: there is a countdown from ten to one and when the number six is reached, it is repeated three times. Really tough to beat that, ain't it? Satanic Armageddon is so loaded with cliché that it drips out of every hole, riff and motive and the band seem to feel comfortable with it.

Satan!

The music offers a variety of facets. Imagine later Dark Funeral (Attera Totus Sanctus; drums and dynamics) with influences from their early period (tempo, linear song-writing), mixed with the lyrics of War from Sweden and you get Satanic Armageddon by Horncrowned. Linear, aggressive and very fast played music with no end in sight is offered on ten compositions, whose combined length is around thirty-three minutes. The drums are oriented on the play of Matte Modin, but without ever reaching his dynamics and power. When it comes to the guitars, then fast played riffs with some rare solo segments -- nothing spectacular though -- can be found and the performance is good. A bass seems to play in the background and the vocalist uses a mixture between fast speaking and croaking. The production is surprisingly good and the instruments have a lot of punch.

Satan!

This release is pretty boring, because it offers nothing more than endless blasts; not to mention a vocalist who seems to be incapable to get the balance between the music and lyrics right. Slower interludes cannot be found on this release. Some neat solo parts have also not been webbed into the compositions and therefore can nothing more than an endless high speed wankery be found. Fan boys of Dark Funeral might find this release at least partially interesting, but to no one else can a recommendation be given.

Satan!

This review contains the word name of the Fallen One six times and can therefore be described as being true. Contrary opinions on this issue will be ignored.

Satan!
- oneyoudontknow, April 29th, 2009

(metal-archives com)