Don't judge Revolting's Hymns of Ghastly Horror by its album cover. If you do you will be missing out on a fantastic album. My first thoughts when I looked at it was "Oh god, this is going to suck". I mean, there's a naked corpse holding a child's decapitated head, while said corpse gets strangled by some hand popping out of a broken mirror. In addition the headless child's body is holding two butcher knives. I mean, this thing looks like cheese deluxe. I was kind of shocked to hear some great, catchy death metal come pouring forth from the speakers as soon as I hit play. I mean, I was so shocked I had to keep checking to make sure I put on the right album.
After digging around on the band's Facebook page and reading their bio it all made sense though: Per their bio the band is dedicated to the horror/gore films of the 80s and keeping the spirit of death metal alive. Granted a lot of horror/gore bands say that, but 99% of them don't play as well as Revolting does, the band is so good at what they do that they will have you headbanging and reaching for repeat again and again. Sound-wise the band has the classic Swedish death metal sound with buzz saw guitars and gutteral vocals that we all know and love. The thing is that with songs this good you aren't going to care about originality. This is an awesome tribute to the old school and I totally love it. The album is a perfect companion to an old Stephen King novel or Halloween marathon.
Don't be put off by the cheesy artwork or band name. Get Hymns of Ghastly Horror as soon as possible. You will not regret it. Is it really a 4.5? YES! Listen and believe.
Track Listing
01. The Mother Of Darkness 04:11
02. Their Thoughts Can Kill 04:05
03. Ravenous Alien Spawn 03:44
04. The Black Queen 04:26
05. The Thing That C.H.U.D. Not Be (Instrumental) 03:46
06. Psychoplasmics 04:18
07. Prey To Katahdin 04:36
08. Kinderfeeder 03:02
09. The Hatchet Murders 04:44