Sunday, 22 December 2019

Growing Horns - The Nobility Of Pain (EP Review)


Release date: December 15th 2019. Label: Self Released. Format: DD

The Nobility Of Pain – Tracklisting

1.We're All Made Of Scars 07:28
2.Luciferian Kingdom 05:19
3.Mountains Of Pain 06:38
4.Butcher's Blues 06:13
5.2084 06:11

Members

Dafus Demon: vox
Wim Vekeman: bass
Didier Cottenies: guitars
Sven Caes: guitars
Simon Vandoom: drums

Review

The Nobility Of Pain is the new EP from Doom/Sludge Metallers Growing Horns and it’s a loud and bleak vision that the band have come up for this release. The EP is quite dark from the very start with the pounding grooves and vocals that leave little to the imagination. The band take a wide range of influences from the Doom/Sludge metal scene but also from the Thrash and Stoner Metal scenes as well.

The songs are quite progressive in places and this allows Growing Horns to play around with their overall sound whilst still creating a bleak cinematic vision. The lyrics and vocals are quite dark but they have to be for a record such as this.

The opening two songs – We’re All Made Of Stars and Luciferian Kingdom – are the main standouts on this EP as Growing Horns come out fighting with their style of Doom/Sludge based grooves written around dark lyrics and almost pitch-black vocals. You can hear CONAN-and Electric Wizard down-tuned sounds on certain parts of both songs and most of the EP but perhaps with a darker edge.

The EP also has a very cool sounding NOLA influence which you can feel throughout the vocals and riffs mainly. So there is a lot of hidden depth to Growing Horns music and you may need to listen to the EP a few times to fully understand what is going on with this record.

The other 3 songs on the album are good as well just not as good as the opening two songs but Growing Horns still impress with their own brand of Doom/Sludge Metal madness especially on Mountains Of Pain and 2084.

The band aren’t doing anything groundbreaking but they have released an exciting EP that has a few cool surprises along the way. If you’re looking for a bleak and twisted journey throughout the realms of Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal then let Growing Horns be your guide. Growing Horns feel they have a lot more exciting stories to tell in the future with further releases.

For a band that has been going for 5 years, their debut EP has most definitely been worth the wait.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Viral Propaganda PR for the promo. The Nobility Of Pain is available to buy now

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