ALBUM REVIEW: Devil’s Bell – Audrey Horne
“Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee” John Donne once wrote. The phrase is said to signify the sense of belonging we should all have within humanity. When one of us is to pass, we as a collective should mourn the loss with the tolling of the funeral bell. Whose bell is tolling however? Is it that of the good deity or of the devil? Scandinavian hard rockers AUDREY HORNE invite us to listen to the pealing of their Devil’s Bell.
The quintet follows 2018’s Blackout with nine tracks of what they hope are wall to wall rock anthems. Seven albums in to an illustrious career, AUDREY HORNE have produced arguably the best album in their discography to date. From opening Ashes To Ashes to closing From Darkness, this is a band well and truly hitting their stride. Ashes To Ashes sets the tone with an ode to ill omens. Arve Isdal and Thomas Tofthagen wield their guitars to produce dual axe melodies which stick in the sweet spot of all heavy metal fans. “I’m the creepy voice inside your head” Torkjell “Toschie” Rød wails in a fashion close to Ozzy Osbourne in his heyday. As Ashes To Ashes progresses, so too does the world building. Empty sonic spaces are soon filled with fuller guitars and a fatter bass from Espen Lien. From this introductory song alone it’s clear as day AUDREY HORNE know exactly what they’re doing.
We made a reference to Ozzy Osbourne which may appear throwaway, but as Devil’s Bell winds on it’s hard to deny the influence the forefather of metal had over AUDREY HORNE. Animal dwells in ferocity; Lien’s basslines create a fuzz we’ve longed for since the 70s and 80s. “Show me your warpaint” languishes in dreamy echoes, while Break Out’s “cardboard box of madness” harnesses the chaos of a rebellious character. As their female protagonist pushes back against her oppressor, Rød’s proclamation of “all your secrets are safe with me” marks a change in pace, the slower interlude tickling at the amygdala.
While we can pick out individual elements, it’s the amalgamation of these moving parts coming together in such a way that no one outshines their counterparts which makes this album a joy to listen to. While many may be put off by an early instrumental, Return To Grave Valley treats us to four minutes of song composition 101. AUDREY HORNE sweep us away through a world of their creation. Where some would draw out the movements of their pieces for just a moment too long, AUDREY HORNE have their timing down perfectly. As a result, the tableau they paint is rich and full of splendour. As Grave Valley enters our mind’s eye, galloping drums slow to a canter, compacted instrumentals separate to make room for a sweet solo to drift through on the wind.
From one wild metaphor to another, Danse Macabre (translated to Dance with Death) has the skeletal figure himself leading us in a paso doble into the abyss. AUDREY HORNE seize the moment to experiment with spatial audio, the guitars creeping up the right of our spine while the drums keep our left side in time. “Dance with me until your love grows cold and dies” becomes intoxicating as we lend ourselves entirely to a fictional psyche riddled with bitterness and paranoia.
With all this in mind AUDREY HORNE don’t always get it right. All Is Lost is the band experimenting with their sound and structure. A slower guitar driven introduction piques our interest at first, but when the track fleshes out it doesn’t light our fire the way we’d hoped. The tale of a coup where it’s demanded “hand me her fucking crown” doesn’t inspire rebellion within us. Leading into penultimate Toxic Twins, AUDREY HORNE serve a touch more confusion and slight disappointment. The song’s structure is undeniably sublime. After the second chorus, the guitar work bounces and punctuates itself moving into a constantly engaging solo. Fluidly moving between three phases, a dual guitar solo hits that sweet spot again in an otherwise ‘good’ track which criminally passes us by.
We mentioned funeral bells at the top of this review. As Devil’s Bell comes to its end with From Darkness, a seven-minute saga of seduction, we ask ourselves whether AUDREY HORNE have done enough to tempt us with their Devil’s Bell. While this is the best album of their career, there have been small sticking points as we’ve discussed. Are those niggles enough to discount the album entirely? Not at all. It’s simply a band in a constant state of improvement to reach those higher levels. When it comes down to the funeral bells pealing, AUDREY HORNE should absolutely be commended for Devil’s Bell.
Rating: 8/10
Devil’s Bell is set for release on April 22nd via Napalm Records.
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