The Beast of the Apocalypse - A Voice from the Four Horns of the Golden Altar (2009)

Transcendental Creations is quickly becoming one of my favorite labels in terms of finding different music, having released A Forest of Stars “The Corpse of Rebirth”, and now they are back with “Voice from the Four Horns of the Golden Altar” from The Beast of the Apocalypse.

The Beast of the Apocalypse is Dutch band formed in 2009, and they make a very solid statement in their first album: Primitive and Raw Black Metal is back with a vengeance. And I don’t mean this because of all the other Black Metal bands that released epic albums this year (see our top 10 Black Metal albums of 2009 list on January), but because The Beast displays natural abilities at making cold and raw BM that only the classic bands have been able to do.

“A Voice from the Four Horns of the Golden Altar” is an extremely raw journey into the depths of hell (or at least this is the way I picture it), the two musicians behind this band are pretty good at creating think atmospheres and by using the ‘low-fi’ production style they manage to capture a very gritty sound that many bands fail miserably at. Featuring 6 tracks of pure misanthropy, I can’t think of a better way to spend a cold winter night than listening to this great release.

The riffing is very simple and because of the harsh production it sounds like the old times of Beherit, Master among others. The drumming is pretty standard and it’s a bit drowned behind the distorted guitars mix but holds the music together nicely. The vocals are pretty standard and very effective for the eerie music that the band presents.

The minimal synth arrangements provide nice breaks and it’s used very conservatively, keeping the focus on the rawness and brutality of the music. The only thing that I see in this album as a problem is the monotony that the band’s sound reaches after a few songs, they will just sound like a distortion blur, but if you are into the band’s sound then this will make you like them even more.

The Beast of the Apocalypse is a very solid Black Metal band, and I can’t wait to hear more new music from them, but until then I’ll be adding “A Voice from the Four Horns of the Golden Altar” to my regular play list.

Release: October 19th, 2009

Country: Netherlands