Album Review: More Death and Horror - Sounds of Tyrants
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
If you are after something a little bit different to listen to, then you aren’t going to be disappointed with this little gem of a album. I’ve played it through several times now and after each listen, I’m still finding new things that leave me shaking my head and going “huh, WTF?”
Welcome to the dark and grizzly world of More Death and Horror (M.D.A.H.) and their debut release entitled ‘Sound of Tyrants’. Named after the BBC horror sound effect albums from the seventies, M.D.A.H is a collaboration conceived by John Seodah, electronica, ambient and other assorted noises, Jim Hinder (ex-Onslaught) on bass, Tommy Concrete (ex-The Exploited) on guitar and vocals and John and Sophie (Hand of Kalliach) on vocals.
I’m not going to lie, but this whole collection of songs is all a bit mad, but in a genius way. The songs are all based around 70s and 80s imagery and real life horrors, and can go from synthy doom to 2000bpm electro-thrash, so there is definitely something to whet everyone’s taste buds. Most of the themes/lyrics for the songs come from horror books and films, alongside some political tracks, but if you like witches, ghouls, zombies and necroborgs, then this is the right album for you.
The opening track has short instrumental riffing from various horror scores and themes from over 50 years called ‘Amityville Ash Tree’ and is a spine chilling and eerie start to proceedings, with lots of heavy synth action, before the old school thrash of ‘Sound Effects of Death and Horror’ rips through your flesh and like the poisoned modern media its written about, starts to maul your insides.
This is quickly followed by a track influenced by Celtic Frost, ‘Queen of Black Magic’ which is the title of an Indonesian film about a vengeful witch, and drips of evil, before your head gets pounded by some super-fast electro-thrash, with ‘Night of the Crabs’, based on a book by the late Guy N Smith. But my favourite track is the slow synth instrumental called ‘Morningside Cemetery’ which is inspired by the Phantasm series, and just conjures up images of being trapped in a fog infested forest and struggling to run away from the demons that are calling out your name.
And the variety just keeps on coming, ‘Daggers of Megiddo’ is an Omen inspired slow synth chigger, before ‘WW Zed’ kicks you up the arse with an exhilarating electro-thrash track summarising George A Romero’s classic “Dead” trilogy. No horror themed music would be complete without something based on Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, and ‘Hellbound Heart – Let’s Kill Frank’ has the slow intro riffs from the classic film, and then just metamorphosises into a thrashy hardcore tune of sheer awesomeness.
The last two songs showcase the diversity of the band, with ‘Meatball Machine’ being an electro-thrash song based on a Japanese film about aliens entering humans, turning then into bio-mechanical monsters and making them fight, and has some quite excellent riffing, before it’s brought to a close with ‘Sounds of Tyrants’ a slow heavy, track that bemoans our never ending tilt to populist dictatorships and has lyrics based on ‘Sounds of Silence’ by Simon and Garfunkel.
This is an eclectic mish mash of genres and styles juxtaposed with horror and gore, and it works really, really well, and is the perfect accompaniment to any Halloween themed party.
