When you’ve got a band that features members from Type O Negative, Life of Agony, and Biohazard, you know you’re in for a treat. I mean, with names like that behind A Pale Horse Named Death, there’s no way it can go wrong, right? Well, check after the jump to see if that statement holds true.
The album kicks off with an intro track of a horse racing towards the listener, the equine’s whinnies echoing back and forth. The album then goes into As Black As My Heart. The strange thing is the further I got into this track, the more I pictured the movie, The Crow. Although this album was just released, it has a very early 90’s feel and sound to it. That is, until you get to the last minute of the track, when singer Sal starts screaming and the guitars start morphing into something far more sinister than we’ve heard before.
Cracks In The Walls sounds heavily influenced by Alice In Chains while Heroin Train has strong undertones reminiscent of Stone Temple Pilots. Neither of these comparisons are meant to say that A Pale Horse Named Death is just a rip-off band, but rather it seems like an homage to a time in music when the music was just a grimy as the lyrics. However, songs like Pill Head and Meet The Wolf drag on a little bit too long.
The Final Word: A Pale Horse Named Death’s And Hell Will Follow Me is a throwback to an era when rock and metal wasn’t afraid to face, and even laud, the darkness that lurked behind the scenes. If you’ve been missing the grunge days of ‘Dirt’, ‘Core’, ‘Undertow’ and ‘Ten’ with a healthy dose of ‘Antichrist Superstar’, you may very well have found an answer to your prayers. For others, a very solid album still awaits you.
