Kreator - Hordes Of Chaos (Ltd. Ed. CD/DVD)
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Music CD Cover Artist: Kreator Edition: Music CD Audio: English (Unknown) Format: Limited Edition CD Release Date: 2009-01-13 Music Label: Steamhammer / SPV Soundtracks: Music CD 1
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| New | New Usually ships in 1-2 business days | $12.62 | ||
| Used | Used Usually ships in 1-2 business days | $9.98 |
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Free Music Notes for Hordes Of Chaos (Ltd. Ed. CD/DVD) Album
Free Music Review: Leaves Something to be desired....
Hit: 3 Stars
Hordes of Chaos is the successor to 2005's impressive Enemy of God, and I don't think it lives up to Kreator's other more recent return-to-form thrash albums (Violent Revolution and the aforementioned Enemy of God). The album begins with Sami Yli-Sirnio playing- an actually quite catchy - melody unaccompanied until his bandmates join the fray and Hordes of Chaos can officially begin. Let me waste no time, the title track is hands-down the best track on this album. It's catchy, creative, energetic, lyrically interesting, and in general everything thrash metal should be. Although placing a shiny piece of copper amongst a pyramid of dog turds will make any scrap of metal seem precious.
The problem isn't the solos, which retain Enemy of God's routine of Mille mindlessly shredding while Sami melodically rebuilds what the former destroys. It's not the choice of topics, which continues thrash metal's preconceived notions of society sucking and people being generally unfeeling zombies who hate everyone (not hypocritical at all, but who am I to judge?). And it's not the fact that this album was recorded live (the band records together simultaneously instead of each bandmate individual recording his part alone), which gives it a really awful garage sound I wouldn't expect or want from a professional band. If you have studios, the ability to use them extensively, spend time to ensure each part is perfect or as close to as possible, and make sure everything is congruent, then why would you choose not to unless you have a "statement" to make?
Nay, the real problem, the real thorn jutting into my spine is just that the whole is not greater then or equal to the sum of it's parts. I.E., the songs simply are not very good. They're not particuarly catchy, several songs contain the same chorus pattern of Mille yelling the name of the song at you until he tires and taps on Sami's shoulder to solo (Amok Run, Warcurse, Destroy what Destroys You are all guilty of this), and the riffs themselves feel uninspired and almost forced. Another thing I REALLY don't like is their borrowing of themes from today's fad and preoccupation with Metalcore -- Heavy Metal's blind, deaf, retarded half-brother who only occasionally pees himself and passes out (I don't like Metalcore). It's not an overt influence, but you tell where and when they took a little dab of breakdown-salt and sprinkled over the thrash metal topsoil just to ruin what would be fine on it's own.
To summarize, Hordes of Chaos is an album that I really think could have and should have been better. I like the included DVD which contains a fairly brief look at the making of the album, but it doesn't really show much of interest -- yes, we can all infer as to what recording an album entails (playing instruments in front of microphones, mixing and mastering, etc), so it really isn't much more then a movie trailer that serves as something to wet your tongue with anticipation and saliva until the real show begins. But then again you can't justify a mediocre album with extra material.
Final Thought: Listen before you buy, or borrow from friend. You won't really be missing much.