Spook the Horses - Empty Body (2020) EN

New Zealand-based collective Spook the Horses (btw, what a name for the Rohirrims!) have created a bunch of albums and it seems that they manage to gather a solid fanbase, this year they add the fourth album to their discography, a stunning one one called Empty Body.

So it happened that this is going to be the second, after the Ukrainian Nug, band I post about and that makes a similar music - overwhelming post-metal spiced with screaming, imagination-fueling vocals. When they describe their music, they use tags like "post-metal, drone, experimental rock, ambient music and thrash". And indeed they cover a vast spectrum of metal music: we deal with more riff-based fragments and those more atmospheric and even purely noise-like (resulting in fantastic Counting Days on Bone).

I'm astonished by the longest track, fantastically crushing Apology Rot as it's never easy not to over use the screaming or bore audience to death but the Oceania artists did well here. Another thing is how well Callum Gay's vocals express emotions ranging from pure aggression to nihilistic depression. The emotional charge and the music's quality make the album stand out this year.

Empty Body costs 7.99 EUR.

Check: Apology Rot

Country: New Zealand

Genre: post-black metal

Label: Pelagic Records

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:soundcloud:

:spotify: