By Rich Hobson
With associations to The Ocean, Cult of Luna and Carcass, you almost don’t have to hear a note of Herod’s music to know that this is a band whose sound is so abrasive it could jet-wash the flesh off a listener at 30 paces. ‘Sombre Dessein’ is a record which definitely doesn’t disappoint in that regard then, taking the most abrasive route to post-metal and noise it can and grinding itself down to the bone across 42 minutes of excruciating brilliance.
Five years on from the release of debut ‘They Were None’, Herod return with a handy refill of piss and vinegar, drafting in ex-The Ocean vocalist Mike Pilat to add an extra dose of salt to the gaping sonic wounds they inflict. Hardened industrial vibes ring loudly throughout Sombre Dessein, signalled first on ‘Fork Tongue Intro’ but then sonically carried forwards in the mechanised tones of the instruments as the band lurch into gear for ‘Fork Tongue’ itself.
Astoundingly, the almost painful slowness of each crushing rhythm employed by Herod doesn’t serve to slow the powerful advance of the record at all, the tracks seeming to bleed away in no time at all. One of the strongest reasons for this is the band’s careful employ of melody breaks, not so much injecting levity into the mix as offering a haunting counterweight to the monolithic grooves of each song. In this way, Herod’s methods are entirely dissimilar to the oddball quality of Arabrot’s ‘Who Do You Love?’, taking the oddity of that record and marrying it to the mechanised viciousness of Fear Factory.
Even when pursuing softer sonic territories, ‘Sombre Dessein’ maintains a sense of oily industrialisation; appropriate, considering the album’s theme of an ending to the Judaeo-Christian thermo-industrial civilisation. Of course, even the softness is employed just to inject something a whole lot nastier down the line; take the gentle build of ‘Don’t Speak Last’, which drifts airily into the room before erupting just past the three-minute mark into something throat-shreddingly furious and bilious.
On ‘Silent Truth’ Herod to go full Meshuggah, the angular techy riffs firing off at oblique angles in a way that is frankly dizzying to behold. Even stranger is that this heaviness is offset against melodic verses which are almost Black Peaks in nature, so light by contrast that the overall mix becomes a yin-yang of incongruity, impossible to pin down and yet mesmerising to behold, like watching the individual teeth of a thresher as it rolls towards you. The ultimate expression of fatalism and impending doom comes on closing track ‘There Will Be Gods’ – a song which doesn’t introduce vocals until almost eight minutes into its 9:42 run-time and just builds and builds on sonic themes of industrial decay and destruction as the song steadily grows to ear-shattering proportions.
Unyieldingly heavy and caked in post-industrial filth, Herod come roaring into 2019 like oil-spattered prophets of doom, promising imminent societal decay in a record which never tries to sugar coat its themes. There are no big choruses or friendly grooves to lock into here; this is an endurance test for abrasive metal enthusiasts, the cleansing of wounds by tearing off scabs with a cheese grater and salting the wound. Looking at the way things are going on a global scale, it seems that Herod are ahead of the curve.
- ‘Sombre Dessein’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
- Herod hit these shores in March with The Ocean:
- Wednesday 20 – Birmingham – Mama Roux
- Thursday 21 – Limerick – Dolan’s Warehouse
- Friday 22 – Dublin – Voodoo Lounge
- Saturday 23 – Glasgow – Audio
- Sunday 24 – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
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