BARBARIC HORDE - Axe of Superior Savagery CD
The gates to the underworld are open in the beautiful city of Lisbon, Portugal, thanks to the venomous and unrelenting fusion of Black and Death Metal played by a mysterious entity that goes by the name of Barbaric Horde, ready to decimate your senses and leave you completely disoriented after the 28 minutes of infernal music found in their debut full-length opus, nicely titled Axe of Superior Savagery, are over. Featuring an old school artwork by Warhead Art and layout by Maciej Kamuda Art, Axe of Superior Savagery is a much bolder beast than their 2016 demo Gasmask Perpetrators and their 2017 demo Tainted Impurity, while at the same time keeping the band’s utterly raw and dirty core musicality intact, therefore living up to the legacy of the early days of Black Metal.
And this uncanny Portuguese entity quickly arises from the pits of hell with the fulminating opening track Tyrant of the Dark Trynity, offering our putrid ears a high dosage of evil in the form of insane blast beats, crude riffs and Stygian vociferations. Put differently, it can’t get any more underground than this, followed by Antichrist Command, bringing forward blasphemous, acid lyrics (“Flames of holocaust unconquerable / A new world alliance / Forged on the caustic fires of vengeance / Hideous fiends throw the kings head to the rats / One by one the knife will do god’s work”) amidst another infernal and visceral display of Black Metal infused with Death Metal elements. Then rumbling, doomed bass lines permeate the air in the also wicked Venomous Infernal Carnage, with extreme aggression flowing from their riffage while the song’s apocalyptic and tribal beats give the overall sonority a sense of despair and violence; and even more disturbing than its predecessors, Barbaric Provocation is a lesson in primeval Black Metal showcasing gruesome gnarls and roars, while the guitars and bass keep reverberating and piercing our ears mercilessly.
Furious and frantic drums dictate the rhythm in the ode to darkness and blasphemy titled Bow Before the Altar of Satan, where razor-edged guitar riffs will cut your skin deep and make you bleed in the name of extreme music, whereas the title-track Axe of Superior Savagery will simply smash your skull with its fusion of the rawest forms of Black and Death Metal. Hence, it couldn’t have sounded more demonic, as if Cannibal Corpse and Mayhem merged into one single entity of pure evil. Vicious guitars and a menacing, bold atmosphere are the main ingredients in the also disturbing chat Storms of Primitive Violence, sounding and feeling berserk and insane form start to finish, also presenting a very raw sound that will please all fans of the genre, before they offer us all one final blast of demented sounds not recommended for the lighthearted in the form of Wrath of Goetic Glorification, where truly demonic growls from the depths of the underworld lead this sick display of pure and unfiltered Black Metal, ending the album on a perturbing note.
Barbaric Horde’s infuriated display of Black and Death Metal can be better appreciated in its entirety on YouTube, and you can also show your support to the underground of the underground by listening to more of their music on Spotify and by purchasing Axe of Superior Savagery from the Godz ov War Productions’ BandCamp or webstore, from Rex Diaboli’s BandCamp or Big Cartel, or from Discogs. This eerie Portuguese horde, which I suspect is formed by two devilish members, is showing a lot of potential with Axe of Superior Savagery, aiming at carving their name in the Portuguese metal scene as one of the most barbaric, inhumane and dirty entities playing our beloved Black Metal, consequently putting a huge smile on Satan’s face for effectively representing him in our decaying and rotten world through their hellish music.
(The Headbanging Moose)
Godz Of War 2020
