South America has vast underground scene and from Brazil comes Hordes of Wrath. This is a one man band which continues in raw paths of Sarcofago, Krisiun and even European influences like Marduk can be heard in this apocalyptic demo featuring four in your face Satanic songs. The music is all out fast and aggressive black death thrash attack. Old school thrash is featured mixed with blast beats in Final Solution, for me the best song on this demo. All Must Die and All Must Die are something for you to peel your ears too. Vocals are shouted more in thrash metal vein, dirty and raw, lyrics are all out attack in your face, with killing, trampling upon corpses of christians, misanthropy and anger. This energy lacked in my music list last couple of weeks, so I am happy to have found out about Hordes of Wrath. Great demo, I am eager for a full length in the future.
Mutant Reavers from Germany are in no way strangers to the pages of this webzine. Their horrorpunk releases were already reviewed and featured in this zine. This is their new e.p. The music of these 6 songs is concept driven and a bit different from their previous opuses. The music is melodic gothic industrial synthwave horrorpunk which remains in lyrics. I don’t know if it is only me but this e.p. reminds me a lot of Deathstars. I love the synth melodies, anthemic choruses and overall dystopian vibe and atmosphere of this opus. My personal favorites are Buffet of Brutality and My Dreams(Are Not Electrical). As the band says, next one will be back to more punk rock oriented music. But this one is different and awesome.
James Herbert (1943-2013) is in no way stranger to the pages of this webzine. His works have already been featured and reviewed here and I am a great fan of his chiller horror novels as you can say if you read my previous features on his books. This time, Herbert brings us a mixture of horror and catastrophe novel about the end of the world and new start. Something is happening all over the world, tsunamis destroy coasts and thousands die, Loch Ness boils and hot water turns into wave which kills, storms kill thousands with hail size of a tennis ball on highways. Mother Nature decided to strike back for all of our sins against her. In midst of trying to save what is left to save are two special Romanian siblings, their adoptive mother, one meteorologist and evil cult from New Orleans who try to stop saving and end the world into infinite darkness. What to say? I read almost all of Herbert’s books. He was also known that he DIY arranged all of his front covers in a way he thought they should represent the novels he wrote. He died suddenly at the age of 69, not being ill or anything, so he could have written to us fans so much more.
Considering this novel, I must admit that it is not his top five. It is just too much confused in some places, too long and too light compared to let’s say Rats trilogy, Ash trilogy or Others and similar of my favorites. Also, ending seems to be a little to abrupt and all of those horrible things that happened throughout the story are just solved too easily. You could say that there is a happy end, but there is also no happy end to this story. If you are a fan like I am, you will like this one. If you are a first time Herbert reader I recommend some of the works I mentioned above in this paragraph.
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