Revolting, Hymns of Ghastly Horror

Horror movies and death metal go together like peanut butter and jelly… like beer and BBQ… like severed limbs and the stench of decay. Sweden’s Revolting certainly have embraced the relationship to the fullest extent on their fourth full-length, Hymns of Ghastly Horror. The nine tracks presented here are chock full of ghastly imagery, full riffs and head-banging rhythms. What more could you want from an album?

Well, a little variety certainly wouldn’t hurt. Each track is fairly similar in structure and delivery — think standard OSDM, but with a warmer overall sound. Now, that’s not to say this album sucks. It doesn’t. It just doesn’t vary all that much as Revolting rumble along through each track with thundering, mid-paced rhythms, warm buzzing guitars, fairly simple (though bruisingly barbaric) song structures and guttural growls. Despite the lack of creativity from song to song, the band is wise to keep things brief — 36 minutes run time for nine tracks sounds perfect to me.

“The Mother of Darkness” gets things rolling pounding drums, thick chugging riffs and Rogga’s guttural growls. The track is solid and also lets you know what you can expect moving forward through the rest of Hymns of Ghastly Horror. Pretty much every song here on after follows a similar line as the opener and to tell you the truth, with an album like this, I’m cool with that. The music is far from boring and it damn well pounds like a motherfucker. I love the gallop to “The Black Queen.” And not only does “The Thing That C.H.U.D. Not Be” have the best title, but it’s also quite an enjoyable instrumental that bridges the first and second halves of the disc nicely.

More guttural, indecipherable growls and gurgles greet you on “Psychoplasmics,” a song that embraces the film, “The Brood” to the fullest. I have no idea what the hell a kinderfeeder is, but the song of the same title is a monstrous chug-fest of neanderthal simplicity when it comes to the riffage — needless to say, I love it. Single-minded and to the point, the song marches along like a galloping heard of the undead. Album closer, “The Hatchet Murders,” is right in line with the rest of the album, though it may be a bit quicker on the tempo.

All in all, Hymns of Ghastly Horror ain’t that bad of an album. It’s well performed and enjoyable to listen to in just about any scenario. After a few listens, though, you tend to let it fade into the background. There just isn’t enough variety between tracks to keep you fully engaged. That’s not necessarily a bad thing depending on what you’re looking for, but I’d like a little more differentiation between songs myself.

And before you get in an uproar over the album cover, yes, I know it’s censored. I did that. I don’t need my site to be labeled as some sort of child porn because an album cover has a kid’s junk painted on it. Now, some headless nun getting fucked in the ass by a zombie goat? Well, that’s another matter all together.