Self proclaimed Nintendocore
outfit Horse The Band return with their third album “A
Natural Death”. Now Nintendocore, “what’s that?” I hear you
say, well their current keyboardist, Erik Engstrom, uses the
Korg
MS-2000 and more recently, the
Roland
Juno-D synthesiser, both popular choices among
many of today's synth orientated metal bands but here's the
catch, he also uses a
LSDJ
Game
Boy cartridge to achieve an
8-bit
video game-influenced sound, hence creating
Nintendocore, one of the more interesting genres today.
From the first few
notes of opening track “Hyperborea” it is clear that Horse
The Band are different to other synthesiser orientated
bands like Enter Shikari, Scary Kids Scaring Goods and Drop
Dead Gorgeous, in that they are actually a good band,
alongside that of Blessed By A Broken Heart. Horse combine
furious drums with powerful synthesisers, layered guitars
with sharp vocals and also a diverse set of lyrics. The album mixes
together elements of heavy and soft, with “Murder” going for
a more melodic approach, whereas “The Startling Secret of
Super Sapphire” has a much more intense synth orientated
sound, which is again heard on the Mario-esque “Face Of
Bear”, possibly the catchiest song on the album.
Using ambient one
minute interludes between certain songs, “The Beach” and
“Crickets” being two prime examples, makes the songs that
follow much more hyperactive and intense, especially the
shred-o-rama that is “New York City” which has riffs that
are about as fast as Slayer played on guitars and keyboards
in unison creating an atmospheric sphere of noise.
OK so some tracks towards the
end are a bit hit and miss; the eighties inspired “Sex
Raptor” being a definite miss and the likes of “Red Tornado”
and “Treasure Train” being clear hits, showing a variation
of different styles and influences. The bizarrely titled “I
Think We Are Both Suffering from the Same Crushing
Metaphysical Crisis” may sound like a rather tedious emo
ballad, a la Panic At The Disco or Fall Out Boy, however it
is in fact a seven minute experimental epic, its what you’d
expect to hear if you gave John Petrucci a Game Boy and a
portable studio left him alone for a few hours, amazingly
cheesy but still a cracking listen. “Lif” ends where the
album started, finishing with the same ambient intro that
opened the album on “Hyperborea”, as this album can easily
be left on repeat and is meant to reflect the cycle of life
and death, or something like that. This album is definitely
worth a listen, sure there are a few lows, but it's
predominantly highs.
John
Consterdine
