Album Review: Lock Horns - Red Room
Reviewed by Tim Finch
The Irish metal scene is thriving, year on year the number of high quality new bands being produced by the island is staggering. Competitions like Bloodstock’s Metal 2 The Masses competition have highlighted the quality and given them a show case on this side of the Irish Sea. From both sides of the border heavy metal is alive and well.
Today the next batch of new Irish metal arrives in the form of Lock Horn’s new album ‘Red Room’, an all out battering ram melding styles and influences into one almighty sound.
From the opening notes of ‘The Origin of Evil Impulses’ the listener is subjected to an aural assault, aggressive, melodic, and barbaric all in one. The drums kick in immediately, sounding like a Gatling Gun firing hundreds of rounds in seconds and causing as much damage to your ear drums as the weapon would.
The song, and the album overall, has elements of early 00’s Machine Head and Fear Factory through out, whilst being explorative enough to take you down different paths during the tunes six minute duration all rounded out by daring bass solo/outro.
The band describe themselves as "progressive" and at first this may seem misleading, but as the album developes you can hear where they are pushing that envelope. The basis is rooted in the turn of the millennium sound honed by so many Roadrunner Records bands, but the band have the wherewithal to experiment, a keyboard segment in ‘Rush’ showing they are not stuck on one path and are looking to explore where they can go.
At no point on this album does the pace or magnitude let up. There are no slow segues, no ballads, the entire twenty eight minutes will keep the anxious on the edge of their seats as they get pummelled by the barrage of sounds. ‘Red Room' is half an hour of the most violent onslaught you will hear this month, and we highly recommend you give it a listen, you will not be disappointed.
