Get this: I drive along in my big, old Mercedes, listening to
the latest effort from Bilbao's Horn Of The Rhino. Our oldest daughter is eleven
and used her dad's music taste. She likes some of it, some of it she doesn't.
For all it's worth, she's a cool kid, and she has played floor bass for almost
four years now. The kid tries to play Iron Man on floor bass - what can I say?!
Anyway, she's only eleven and she looks at the cover of 'Grengus'. 'Hey, dad,
what's this? I looks like...dunno, a leg, or something. Can't quite make it
out...' Oh, the innocence! I'm so glad she wasn't able to make it out and that I
could just go 'ehm, no, you're right, it's really not possible to make out what
that is...'
I lied.
I had already figured out what it was.
It was the Devil's cock and bollocks, for fuck's fuck! But how could I tell my
eleven-year-old daughter that? No, that's right, I couldn't.
Bollocks is a central word in a review of this, the fourth album from Horn Of
The Rhino. It's got lots of it, and much more so than its predecessor from 2010,
'Weight of Coronation'. 'Weight of Coronation' was a decent album, but didn't at
all have the same power, aggression and overall quality as 'Grengus'.
Where the 2010 album relied more on sludge, 'Grengus' is more heavily founded on
a platform of thrash, even if the three Spaniards still combine elements of
sludge, doom, stoner and thrash. Alice In Chains and Soundgarden live alongside
riffing that sounds as if it could've been lifted off a Bolt-Thrower album.
I like this adjustment in direction a LOT. Keep it up, Horn Of The Rhino, and
thank you for not making the beastly cock on the cover evident enough for an
eleven-year-old to spot...
