By: Chris Ball
Raging Speedhorn | facebook | twitter | bandcamp |
Released on July 15, 2016 via PledgeMusic
Yes! The Corby crushers return with Lost Ritual! If you want to find out the whys and wherefores then read this interview with Jim of the band that our very own Andy Little carried out recently. I want to get right down to reviewing this beast, so if you want to read my frothing nonsense then carry on…
There’s something filmic in Raging Speedhorn‘s sound, so that despite the fact you may previously have thought them, blunt and base, airless and narrow, a couple of great, if predictably grim, movies are called to mind; Shane Meadows Midlands-based revenge Western homage Dead Man’s Shoes and Ben Wheatley’s Satanic gangster mash-up Kill List. It’s the mixture of supernatural horror, mundanity and extreme violence that they all contain in spades. Raging Speedhorn are like some devil dog, fed on live kittens, space cake and KFC, let loose to terrorise a council estate.
Opener ‘Bring Out Your Dead’ is surprisingly mid-paced, but with trademark savage vocal interplay between John Loughlin and Frank Regan. It has a classic metal construction that builds like a bubbling cauldron of evil and is a great opener, but actually in the grand scheme of things this is merely an aperitif.
‘Halfway to Hell’ was previously released on a split with Monster Magnet and marries a rollicking, punk n’ roll attack to a doomy, bass heavy riff. That bass then leads the breakdown into a timeless Sabbath riff and filthy blackened fade out.
So far so Speedhorn and it feels at this point like every track is faster than the last as we lead into ‘Motörhead’- our new national anthem as of NOW!! Written at the last minute in honour of Lemmy, it features a speed freak attitude, rattling rhythms and all the ‘couldn’t give a fuck‘ spirit you would expect – “Who are you? I am a Motörhead“. Indeed. You better start learning the words, bastards, there WILL be a test later.
The sludge factor gets turned up to eleven on ‘Am I Evil or Mental’ , again with a set of guitar riffs Tony Iommi would be proud of as Loughlin and Regan get in your face chanting “You better fucking decide“…
That track is still full of their familiar moves, but now the band step up a gear, not in terms of tempo, but in terms of sheer brilliance for ‘Ten of Swords’, which is a sludge metal masterpiece of such drama and power that it crushes all in its path. Heavier than guilt, more unstoppable than fate, it turns the air it vibrates in to lead – it’s the proof that Raging Speedhorn have produced not just the best album of their career, but one of the metal albums of the year. I can say that with great confidence because every track that follows it is of similar quality.
‘Dogshit Blues’ is another banging hardcore punk n’ roll rager, with a breakdown worthy of Hatebreed and a swinging riff that will knee cap you. Then, fuck me, it’s ‘The Hangman’! The equal of ‘Ten of Swords’ for pure viciously thick sludge evilness and unadulterated bad vibes – “I know I’ve been a bit of a cunt, is this really the end of me?“ No, thankfully, not yet! But you’re all ‘Shit Outta Luck’ if you’re hoping for respite as another headbanging treat arrives with a groove you cannot deny, even if it does suffer to impress when surrounded by such startlingly great and dramatic tunes. Witness the shift in tempo and style in ‘Coming Home’ as it seems set to be a chugging misery before launching into a blues style for the finale – masterful stuff.
Christ, now prepare to move from the simple pleasures of a dirty blues into the hellish world of the blackest of blackened doom. With a deep, spoken word vocal and ominously cavernous riffs paired with an almost soaring chorus ‘Unleash The Serpent’ is the third moment of utter, utter genius on Lost Ritual. So heavy, so malevolent, I think if you now turn to page one of your metal textbook you will find this track is there under the heading ‘What Is Metal?’ Fuuuuuuucccccckkkk!!!
Raging Speedhorn ask and answer the question “Who am I?” (Everybody) “I am a Motörhead” …and thank Satan for that.
