(written by Islander)
Horns of Abomination is the name of a new Southern California-based one-man audio terror. It is also the name of the band’s debut demo tape to be released by Sentient Ruin, and it’s the name of the demo’s opening song, which we’re now premiering.
As usual, Sentient Ruin has crafted its own vivid prose to describe what happens on the demo:
Treading a liminal outer realm of ear-splitting chaos where bestial war metal and pure noise converge into experimental derailment riding the confines of sanity, Horns of Abomination establishes an audial conquest of unprecedented cruelty and destruction. Obsessive, maniacal, barely coherent rhythmic pulsations plumbing a bloodbath of distortion; assaultive, chainsawing guitars creating berserk repetitions against a foul regurgitation of bestial, disemboweled vomits.
Of course, we have some descriptions of our own to offer.
In the case of the song you’re about to hear, it is indeed truly abominable but it also unexpectedly proves to be hypnotic. It seems like the soundtrack to some horrific ritual conducted by possessed participants, a nightmarish spectacle but one that insidiously infiltrates the minds of observers like us, to the point that you might need to shake yourself like a wet dog after it ends in order to remember where and what you are.
The riffing is dense and its sound is abusively abrasive. But as time passes you can still detect layers within the caustic churning mass, including frantically swirling and brightly convulsing notes that seem to channel a kind of demonic ecstasy.
As Sentient Ruin says in that quotation above, the song also includes rhythmic pulsations that play a large role in making the experience perversely hypnotic. Most notable is the steady beat of the drums, a repeating refrain that changes subtly and then returns, but deeper tones within the song also rhythmically throb.
As for the vocals, they are monstrous, manifesting as abyssal bellows and possessed howls, but also rising up in reverent singing chants and throat-slit screams.
Near the end, the song changes. Those urgent percussive pulsations slow and eventually disappear; the gutting churn becomes a slashing menace, and then transforms into dismal sizzling sensations that slowly expire.
And then you can shake yourself.
The Horns of Abomination demo includes two more songs — “Necrogoat” and “Black Blood Offering“. They are briefer than the song you’ve just heard, but they are equally ruinous, equally diabolical, equally horrifying.
Sentient Ruin will release the demo on cassette tape and digital formats, on July 24th. All formats and streams will be available here:
https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com
http://sentientruin.com/releases
FOLLOW HORNS OF ABOMINATION:
https://hornsofabomination.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/horns_of_abomination/