Welcome!

Here at Don't Count On It Reviews, you can read reviews from different artists from different styles.
Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Horseback - On The Eclipse EP (2012)


Band: Horseback
Country: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Style: Experimental/Psychedelic Black Metal
Label: Brutal Panda

I don't think it's any secret that I, and many others, regard Jenks Miller as a modern genius within the extreme music scene, that includes the likes of ambient and drone genres along with the metal. The work he released last year was more or less in conjunction with other artists and helped to not only spread the name of the band but expand the sonic boundaries that the band works within. This new EP furthers that expansion and acts as a nice palate wetter before the new full-length.
For anyone who has listened to the Horseback back catalog, you'll know that the band's sound is quite varied, but this short little release essentially picks up, essentially, where The Invisible Mountain album left off, sonically anyway. The title-track was described as a meeting between krautrock and acoustic pop, which both works and fails in really describing the sound of the track. While I'll admit that both those "genres" (I'm not sure acoustic pop is a real genre) but there's obviously moments that call back to the full-length mentioned above. Jenks' black metal snarl remains intact as well as the band's unique brand of hypnotic minimalism form of composition. The second track, Broken Orb, sort of takes the two "genres" mentioned above and instead of filtering them through the project's blackened form of desert rock, puts it through the more ambient side of the band. It's certainly a brighter and more droning piece that should get fans of Impale Golden Horn excited, but is a bit more alive, I guess you could say. It's not as minimal as some of the other ambient pieces that have been put under the Horseback name. These two pieces add up to the most accessible Horseback material yet, which might be an overstatement on my end, but is true nonetheless.
I think it's going to be hard to find a fan of the project that won't enjoy this release. Horseback is growing into a project that is going to have a lot of weight behind its name, both in terms of discography size and quality, that will hopefully bring the project even more into the light of the public. I am anxiously awaiting the new full-length thanks to this release, and I just know it's going to be fantastic.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: On The Eclipse

No comments:

Post a Comment