The Kings will be Ready

Hordes of Decay from Greece is a quite new band though it consists of members with some experience in Black Metal. The band was formed by members of Ravencult and Profane Prayer in 2009, it consists of five members and “The Kings will be Ready” is their first release. About a month ago I received the recent full length album by their label, Grom records, which appears to believe a lot in Hordes of Decay’s potential. In my opinion that isn’t happening without a reason as on one hand the band’s members show that they are good musicians and on the other hand their music is quite good and can get listeners across extreme Metal, not only Black.

The album begins with a bizarre intro which is followed by eight equally bizarre but interesting tracks, of thirty eight minutes of total duration. For sure, their music can’t be described with one or two words as also it can’t be classified in Black Metal. More specifically, Hordes of Decay combine their Black Metal influences with many Death Metal and several Thrash elements. Their riff are quite interesting, with many changes, you will find elements from Satyricon, French sound, in some parts the paranoia of Dodheimsgard, speed thrash riffs, several Death riffs and passages to rhythmic parts like Pantera. Which makes the difference is that all those different elements are combined to each other very nicely. The guitars are those which dominate and lead in the compositions. Their sound is clean and their performance is very good. The bass can’t be heard clearly but it fills the sound well. Very good job has been done also concerning the drums with interesting lines and variety in their playing, they assist and complete the very good guitars.

The vocals are dirty, heavy, somewhere in the middle of Black and Death vocals that depending on the part, they become more Black or Death. The production is clean and bassy and in combination with the very good mix, it puts out a sound very tight and massive, exactly the kind is needed so as to highlight the compositions. The lyrics are written in English and maybe they are the weak point of the album. Full of hatred, they express the bands repulsion to christianity, to Christians while they praise darkness and “the other side” as they say. I believe that they are the weak point of the album because they are quite simplistic offering very few to the listener – reader.

Hordes of Decay don’t rush to release their material (“The Kings will be Ready” album was released three years after the band’s creation) so they work their ideas much and also they work with each other in order to give a good result. By their first release it appears that they have a lot to offer to extreme sound. Generally the album is very good and it will surely gain fans by the whole spectrum of extreme sound. For sure, if you spend your money on this album, you won’t regret it.