Horna - Perimä Vihassa Ja Verikostossa EP (1999)

Perimä Vihassa Ja Verikostossa is the best yet in a series of obscure Horna recordings being re-issued through Frostscald Records, a storm of an EP which ghoulishly cleans up the carnage left behind on the battlefields of Kohti Yhdeksän Nousua and Haudankylmyyden Mailla, the band's first two cult status full-length albums, back when Nazgul (of Satanic Warmaster and a hundred other projects) was handling the vocals with cringe inducing, grim splendor and Gorthaur was bludgeoning along on the drum kit. It was originally only about 23 minutes long, but this release includes the bonus title track, which was lifted from the band's rare split with US black metal band Fog, so it saves a little trouble in having to track down that piece.

Here, Horna muster their characteristic monolith of suicidal and warlike sound, taking clear queues from the Norse and Swedish masters like Bathory, Immortal, Emperor, Burzum, and Mayhem, and channeling it through a dynamic if predictable slurry of songs that range from the majestic, middle pacing of "A Ring to Rule", to the scathing holocaust of crude force that is "Haudanusva", to the doom-laden mires of "Verikammari" and "Ghash Inras". This is an entirely raw recording, of course, like the wealth of the band's work, and you can hear the tones ripping at the edge of the envelope like so much overload, but I still feel that the instruments are clear and present enough that it shines with a savage elegance. The bass is loud and bombastic, the drums live and fresh, and the vocals entirely beautiful and sadistic, while the guitars just rip your fucking heart out and leave it on the field of the dead for any straggling survivor to stamp into paste. Seriously, Shagrath's tone here just reeks of destruction and terror.

Assuming that you don't expect the sweeping ballast of symphonic keyboards, or even a faint trace of progression, you should be alright with what Horna had whipped up here. I enjoy this small collection of tracks nearly as much as the early full-length efforts, and the 8 minute bonus track fits in extremely flush with the rest; with a crushing, epic fortitude of some undead juggernaut that promises decisive death and plague wherever it rolls. Finnish black metal has of course exploded since the 90s, but here you've got a taste of one of its most enduring legacies, that of Shagrath, herald of foul taste and purgatory for all those who follow his voracious march into one of the most thorough discographies in the entire genre. Sure, individual tunes here might not find major mileage against some of the full-length material, but its worth having if you appreciate the untainted, primal pulse of black metal's circulatory system.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://www.myspace.com/thetruehorna

Horna - Kun Synkkä Ikuisuus Avautuu (2006)

Horna have always delighted in creating a large body of work with which to support their career. This generally manifests through a series of full-lengths and a myriad of split releases, but often the band will go so far as to collect some unreleased tracks or alternate recordings and also offer these to their fan base. These are hardly offensive, but largely ineffectual, like last year's Musta Kaipuu that was released through Debermur Morti and later Moribund. In the case of Kun Synkkä Ikuisuus Avautuu, we're not hearing anything novel per se, but a collection of demo tracks, some of which ended up on the 2001 album Sudentaival or the Ordo Regnum Sathanas collections that were also issued earlier in the band's existence. This particular compilation was originally released in 2006, but Frostscald/Silenced Voices have repackaged it with vastly better artwork (easily among the best of Horna's catalog) and made it more available once more to your perusal.

Taking into consideration that Horna's full-length studio fare is already extremely roughshod in the production department (intentionally), this demo material is scathing and entirely unkempt. At the best, it feels like a barbarous rehearsal tracking or some poor tape recording of a live performance, but this should not stop the stalwart and masochistic attache who devours the cult and desires to hear this style of black metal in its native environment. The overall tones and wind and weave like a charnel house procession, while the vocals feel garbled, with very little chance of making out anything but their syllabic pestilence as percussion atop the fuzz of the guitars and clanging drums. From the Sudentaival sessions, Horna have included the title track, "Skaldiriimu", "Vihasta ja Arvista", "Hautajaisyö", "Talventuoja", and "Kun Synkkä Ikuisuus Avautuu" itself, all of which spit frost and death with atonal, stark majesty through simple and splattering compositions, "Vihasta..." my favorite for its creeping bass-led bridge rhythm. "Korpin Hetki", "Ihmisviha", and "Ordo Regnum Sathanas" are also included from the original Woodcut re-issue of the band's debut, but stylistically they do not diverge from Sudentaival.

This release is obviously targeted towards the collector who has a vested interested in the primacy of its recordings, even when faced with their superior studio incarnations, and to that extent, Frostscald has done a great job making it look better than it probably deserves. Everything from the cover image to Shatraug's note on the back panel is striking. I myself am a pretty huge Horna fan, so I was personally interested to hear these rough and sore takes on the Sudentaival material, though I can't say I fancy them by comparison to their 'official' revisions. If you're just getting into the band, then absolutely start elsewhere: Haudankylmydden Mailla, Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne, or the superb Sotahuuto are all worthy points of entry. For the starved consumer of all the band's output, this is but a glimpse at the aural chaos of origin, neither fascinating nor accessible, which makes fair eye candy among the larger host of releases.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/thetruehorna

Horna/Sacrificia Mortuorum - Split EP (2006)

Frostscald Records and Silenced Voice Recordings continue their relationship with the Finnish black masters Horna, releasing a series of obscure or hard to find material back into the waiting clutches of their expanding audience. A noble pursuit indeed for a ghastly and ignoble gaggle of musical artists whose intent is to bury us in the sounds of wintry discontent, suicidal madness and carnal traditions, all in steady supply through their split with the arguably even more desolate French act Sacrificia Mortuorum. Originally released in 2006, this cult recording has been packaged once more with its bleakly appropriate cover image, a graying graveyard that rests beneath the weeping of snow, and both the Finnish and French lyrics are included for interpretation.

Horna's contributions are exclusive to this release, a pair of 9-10 minute epics that continue in the tradition of their then-current full-lengths Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne and Ääniä Yössä, albeit with a mildly more even production. "Kurjuus" is a glorious and unhallowed romp through sickening waves of chaos and melody that remain blasting and intense for several moments before the pace of the song is measured out into a mid-paced, depressive partition, a structure that is rinsed and repeated even though the actual riffs shift into different patterns. "Kouristukset Kylmässä" is nearly as punishing, with ripping ice wind melodies that support the frantic rasp of Corvus, pumping bass and steadily crashing drums. As with so much of their work, one must immediately dispense with any expectations of novelty: Horna are perhaps the very definition of traditional Finnish black metal, influenced directly through their Northern neighbors Burzum, Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Bathory, and though neither of these songs could be defined as 'exceptional', both evoke their reliable virtues of slaughter and immersion.

Sacrificia Mortuorum are an excellent match for the Finnish mainstays, and as I hinted, their spacious seductions of fiendish diaspora seem even more chill and distant, like bloodied and desperate men about to bleed out into the unforgiving winter winds. Three tracks are offered, also exclusive here (thus fans of either band have a good excuse to heap their coins upon it), beginning with the rampant 8 minute "Déchu", another repetitious onslaught in excess, with the standard blasting skills and razorsaw guitar tones that define this 'raw' extreme of the black metal spectrum. "L'Appel Du Sang" is about the same length, but opens with a dire and deadly riff that slowly cedes into the bloodstream guitars and heraldic nightmare sneers of the vocalist Lord Arawn. Their final showcase "Emergence D'une Nouvelle Ere" is about half this length, and instrumental, with the tinny cymbals and thriving, snowstorm riffs taking center stage.

Though they might inhabit separate borders, the music of these two comrades is such that they develop a hoary, fluid synchronicity that never once allows the listener to escape the dominant cold of their compositions. Neither band comes up with truly engaging riffs on this split, and both have come up with superior work elsewhere, but it might be excusable for those seeking an untainted excursion into darkness and winter, the near 40 minutes of material serving only as some empty insurrection to discomfort the cold and waning heart. This is all standard, raw black metal akin to Burzum's earlier body of work, or perhaps Russia's Branikald, and it knows its audience well. Newcomers to the artists would find a better yield in Sacrificia Mortuorum's 2007 sophomore Maturum Est, or almost any of Horna's full-length efforts, but as a collector's item, it at least offers material that you won't find elsewhere, even if it is borne more of sadistic atmosphere than an engaging compositional quality.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/thetruehorna

Horna - Vihan Tiellä (2009)

With such an endless procession of product being spat out of the band's abyssal imaginations, it's a wonder that there aren't more live Horna experiences available on CD. The Finns are one of the stronger touring black metal acts, at least to stand loyal to a necrotic, filthy underground sound rather than a symphonic endowed fashion expo like some others. This is only the 2nd such offering I'm really aware of, the other being the Black Metal Warfare live released in 2004, and this was culled from a performance in Athens, Greece back in 2007, so it's not exactly current, but close enough.

I'll state that this is packaged extremely well, with some excellent, aesthetic artwork and the inclusion of the lyrics to the set. Not that this will help one as myself who cannot understand the Finnish tongue, but then, that's never stopped me from enjoying Horna before. At first I misled myself into thinking this was an album of new material being recorded live as opposed to the studio, since I'm not used to lyrics in live album booklets, and this is one band who's song titles rarely ring a bell due to my inadequacy with the language. It turns out the overwhelming majority have appeared before, once or numerous times on the band's prior full-lengths, EPs and split releases. But it's a testament to the band's history that the songs all sound so fluid together, regardless of their original era, about as savage as black metal gets. Vihan Tiellä was recorded with almost the same lineup the band maintains today, with the exception of Saturnus, no longer with them.

The sound mix of the material is quite sincere, but then Horna have always been a band without much gimmicks, and their songs translate to a rather live, brash feel even on the studio efforts. You'll hear some feedback or squalor in places, and occasionally a very minor turbulence in the performance, but the band's haunting riffs and Corvus' bloodthirsty, brutal throat-tones really hammer home the effortless despair with which this band has come to be associated. They're not exactly the most intricate riff writers, and occasionally they'll incorporate some chords that sound familiar to anyone that's been listening to the style for years, whether that be grim punk, rock or black metal. There's been very little deviation in their form, though, so the live pulls together the mix of faster and slower, more sorrowful material very evenly, as if it were a studio selection.

Earlier tunes present in the set include "Örkkivuorilta" from the debut album Kohti Yhdeksän Nousua, and "Verikammari" from the Perimä Vihassa Ja Verikostossa EP in 1999, but this is largely a 21st century Horna, with the largest representation hailing from one of the band's more popular efforts Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne: "Vihan Tie", "Musta Temppeli" and "Kuoleva Lupaus" were all selected. A few tracks from the Musta Kaipuu album of outtakes are also present here: "Marraskuusa" and "Sieluhaaska", though that album would only be released in the same year this live finally got out. Rounding this out, one track from the 2006 full-length Ääniä Yössä ("Raiskattu Saastasessa Valossa"), one from the Viha Ja Viikate EP in 2003 ("Mustasiipinen") and a track the band's split with Behexen, "Verta Koirille". The one track I didn't recognize was "Näkyjen Tuhkasta", a fast paced lashing which is one of the more inspired individual performances on this album.

Like most live albums I'm exposed to, I just can't see any reason which this album would replace the band's excellent studio works, or the experience of actually seeing them for myself. The track list is very steady and the songs often sound almost as good as their studio counterparts, in fact maybe too close, which reduces a little of the novelty or value here. I was also a little perplexed why the band did not include material from their 2007 album Sotahuuto, which is coincidentally my favorite full-length of Horna and my favorite metal album of that year. Whether this was recorded before or after that material I cannot say, since the exact date of the performance is not included with the booklet, but I would figure at least some of those excellent tracks had been written by this time. This all adds up to an experience that is less than optimal, though the band is frankly one of the best in Finnish black metal.

Since this is one band that appeals highly to the metal collector, due to their wealth of output, the great packaging and musical quality of Vihan Tiellä are really secondary to its inclusion on the CD rack in the mountain piles of 'stuff', all in the name of completion. It's by no means a bad exposure to the band's skills on the stage, but I will be unlikely to listen to this over one of their amazing full-length efforts.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.myspace.com/thetruehorna

Horna - Musta Kaipuu (2009)

Though it has the packaging and consistent writing of a full-length, Musta Kaipuu is not actually a new album, but rather a collection of tracks off vinyl and tape sources that were recorded around the time of Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne but not released on the CD version. There is nearly an hour of material here, so Horna fans should be able to dig deeply in. Though I certainly count myself as one of those fans (Horna stands alongside Impaled Nazarene and Barathrum as a favorite Finnish outfit of this sort), much of the material here on Musta Kaipuu is average at best, and I can hear why the band wisely chose not to include it on one of their previous full-lengths. Yet here it stands, and if you mine far enough into into the material you can find a few grim and disgusting bits like "Pohjanportti (Northgate)" or the lengthy "Marraskuussa (In November)".

This is raw black, done much like any other Horna recording of the past 16 years. No refinement necessary, no experimentation or progression, and no pop finish. Just hopelessness and malevolence caught in audio form, as true as it gets. By the mid-'oughts, the Finns were utilizing a lot of straight, slower to mid-paced driving chord patterns in place of the constant tremolo one expected from much of the scene (though they do speed it up on occasion), and in this way they certainly mirrored some of the earlier Darkthrone recordings which in turn had a direct influence from Hellhammer. The central riffs to tunes like "Piina (Misery)" could have just as well belonged to some grimy punk rock outfit, but Horna infuses them with moodier bridges and splices of haunting, steady metallic melody below the dismal din of the production. Often I would find myself involved with a particular riffing progression, only to become numb at its slightly excess repetition, and several of the tracks don't entirely justify their length, even if I enjoyed some of their constituent pieces.

The stripped, flayed flesh of its presentation does work in the disc's favor, because it's hard to imagine a more authentic and honest sound for this genre, which Horna have consistently clung to through their career. It might seem somewhat cruder than a few of their most recent full-lengths, but all of the instruments are clear enough, with the guitars and bass slightly overpowering the tinnier cymbals and the less booming double bass drums. The thick, decrepit rasp of the vocals is more or less what you'd expect, they've always had one of the most pure and savage deliveries in the field whether it was Nazgul, Corvus or the newer front man Spellgoth, though no one would accuse them of the style's innovation or evolution. Abusive, bloody barks resonate just above the level of the guitars and fit in resplendent contrast to even the most glorious passages like the airy pearls of melody that adorn "Unohdetut Kasvot, Unohdettu Ääni" (taken from the band's 2005 split with Tenebrae in Perpetuum).

Still, apart from the stylistic proximity this music bears to several of my favorite Horna records like Envaatnags... or the underrated Sotahuuto, I did not come away from this wholly satisfied. A lot of the riffs are mediocre, also-ran sorts and I never felt that same, spike-fisted, mounting excitement which I felt for the latter of the aforementioned full-lengths. The material here is internally consistent, while varied enough that I wouldn't exactly dub it 'boring', but there were certainly a number of times throughout in which I all too easily phased out of the experience. That said, if you're a diehard collector of the band, or an advocate for the purity of the Scandinavian black wrought by Darkthrone, Bathory, or earlier Mayhem, you won't be offended by what you hear on Mustai Kaipuu, and the songs are decent enough to be given a voice if weren't able to acquire them on earlier, rare issues (like the split 7" or limited double LP of Envaatnags... which the band considers the official version, including a number of these songs).

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://horna666.com/

Horna - Vuohipaimen 7" (2004)

Horna needs little introduction, as they are one of the most phenomenally evil and intense fucking black metal bands to ever erupt from the wooded depths of Finland. Alongside Barathrum and Impaled Nazarene, they represent the true elite from said scene, and have rarely if ever wavered.

Vuohipaimen translates to something like 'Goat Shepherd', an appropriate beast of a title for this venomous, Satanic short-player. "Aldebaranin Susi" is the centerpiece here, nearly five minutes of Corvus' sadistic snarling, tinny cymbals and simple beats which hunt alongside the wolven, ripping Hellhammer-inspired guitar lines of Shatraug and Infection. The other piece is a traditional tune, "Oi Kallis Kotimaa", set to the Horna method, but with more manly, traditional vocals.

This is one of the few kvlt bands whose rare releases are well worth the tracking down. Limited to 1000 hand printed copies, and if you were lucky enough to snag one of the first 100 you got a t-shirt. Fuck. Most of the unworthy, including myself, will just have to settle for the .mp3s. Still worth it though.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (my wolfen sentiments exactly)

http://www.legion-horna.com/