Well hung? Or horny? The brilliant debut is here
Formed by members of Obiat and The Osiris Club, south coast trio Hung On Horns have – almost literally since the start of MVM – been ones to watch.
We were precisely 12 days old when we saw them as a late replacement on a bill at gig in Birmingham. This is what we said: “What is it about three piece bands? How do they do it? Opening tonight there are another one in Hung On Horns who are just gargantuan. The Bournemouth trio deal in massive great walls of sound which reverberate around Scruffys from the second the come on. What makes them mighty effective though, is the huge riffs are juxtaposed with some quieter sections and the songs get chance to breathe and find their way to places that you wouldn’t necessarily expect them to go to. Not quite metal, not quite stoner but instead a glorious mish-mash of all things heavy. Their six song set, including a magnificent “Black Widow” marks them out as a real find.”
Now the reason for this orgy of self-congratulation is quite simple. Here we are two years later and their debut album is out. Not only were does MV stand by all those words, here on “Slaves” Hung On Horns have made something pretty astonishing.
Billing themselves as post-rock probably because they are too modest to tell the truth, which is rather this: If “Slaves” was the new Mastodon record it would be on all the album of the year lists in all the magazines.
Innovative and fresh, but also hugely ambitious, it calmly and methodically begins with “Bastogne” which appears to have far greater importance than just the opening track, rather a statement of intent. All the hallmarks that make HoH a bit more special than a band just releasing their debut record are here. There’s a huge opening riff for sure, but there’s almost a prog band at work here, as it meanders and nips off into places that others not just wouldn’t dare, but wouldn’t even think of.
“Slaves” carries on in that fashion, with the much shorter “Ocean” still shot through with class, while the strident “Black Flower” that sounded so good two years back still does here, while “Carnivora” is the heaviest thing on show, but where the others have hinted at Alice In Chains territory, this one makes those aims rather clear particularly in the chorus.
Elsewhere “Mother Awakes” strikes a rather ominous note, with a real crunch to the guitars from Raf Reutt while singer and bass man Sean Cooper gets bonus points for never straying into the growling that so spoils many records like this.
There’s even a two-part epic, “Kings And Liars” and if part one is light and almost bluesy, then part two is a thumping affair boasting a real confident strut.
“Slaves” ends by returning full circle, “Into The Sun” clocks in at almost nine minutes and ranges from swirling metal gallop to harmonies with ease.
In so doing it encapsulates the ethos of “Slaves” but also the cleverness of Hung On Horns, whereas with some bands this might feel like an incoherent lot of ideas, here the only thing it leaves is rather than head scratching, is the thought that how good could they end up being?
Whatever the answer to that, this is a hell of a start. “Slaves” is the sound of a band making good on what was obvious potential.
Rating 9/10
