Monday 7 December 2020

Horsehunter - Live At Day Of Doom (Album Review)


Release Date: 11th December 2020. Label. Magnetic Eye Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Live At Day Of Doom - Tracklisting

Bring Out Your Dead
Nuclear Rapture
Witchery
Stoned To Death

Review

Aussie Psych Doom/Sludge Metallers Horsehunter are another band who made the trip over to Brooklyn, New York to perform at the legendary Saint Vitus Bar for honouring their record label Magnetic Eye Records with other bands such as Summoner, Elephant Tree and DOMKRAFT. 

Magnetic Eye Records invited our four flagship bands to perform at our DAY OF DOOM label showcase, a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of our premier bands on the same stage.

Each performance was carefully captured to be issued as an exclusive live album to commemorate the event and the first decade in business of Magnetic Eye Records.


Live At Day Of Doom is the live album that captures the live and aggressive raw performance that the band performed that day. Out of all the Live Albums being released from that day, Horsehunter offer the heaviest and bleak sounding set with the band performing 4 songs spanning their last 2 albums which Magnetic Eye Records originally released.

The album is very atmospheric and allows Horsehunter to perform a crushing 45 minute set with the majority of the songs running past the 10 minute mark. 

Editor's Note - The Promo I received had Bring Out Yer Dead as the first song on the album and not Witchery which BandCamp states. The following review is using the tracklist provided from the promo. Apologies to Horsehunter if this feels out of sync to what was actually performed.

Opening song - Bring Out Yer Dead - allows the band to slowly get in their stride with bleak soundscapes and pissed off vocals drawing the listener into Horsehunter’s dark and vivid world.

Once that song is over the band put the audience through even more Doom/Sludge Metal punishment with heavy aggressive riffs making you feel part of the action. The sound is quite raw and captures that LIVE GIG energy that nearly everyone is missing thanks to do this damn virus.

Horsehunter play 3 more epic songs from their acclaimed back catalogue with Nuclear Rapture, Witchery and Stoned To Death being chosen by the band to show what they can really do on the live stage.

Nuclear Rapture and Stoned To Death are the standout parts of the live album. As these are the heaviest parts of the album and perhaps where the audience embraced the dark and violent energy the band conjured up on stage.

Horsehunter - Live At Day Of Doom - is a thrilling and action-packed album that captures a band in truly dynamic form and it makes me want to see these guys live in person if they ever make it over to the UK.

As I said at the start of this release, this is the heaviest and bleakest offering from the entire collection of Live At Day Of Doom being released by Magnetic Eye Records but there is still a lot of fun to be had with Horsehunter’s blend of heavy monolithic Doom/Sludge Metal.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.


Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Magnetic Eye Records for the promo.

You can buy Horsehunter - Day Of Doom Live - from Magnetic Eye Records from Dec 11th 2020 on CD/DD/Vinyl.

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp