ALBUM REVIEW: Horns – Horns

From the outset, the self-titled debut of HORNS is nothing short of ridiculous. If you were to take metal song-writing and channel it through a particularly jazzy brass band, you’d come close to what the outfit offers. Masterminded by pianist and composer Simon Fache, with a cavalcade of fantastic supporting musicians helping to shape arrangements and performances, Horns is a lesson in how to subvert genres while remaining absolutely faithful to their core attitudes.

Opening song Typical Teenagers does an excellent job of setting out the album’s blueprint, kicking off with distorted guitar riffs before jumping to blazing horns and then adding both clean and extreme vocals to the mix. It all crescendos in to a chorus that is equal bits COLLECTIVE SOUL-esque grunge and swing band crooning. On paper, it sounds chaotic, and yet the HORNS musicians manage to make everything feel not only cohesive, but oddly natural. There should be something jarring about Typical Teenagers’ skating between guttural vocals and saxophone solos, but the juxtapositions are expertly handled.

This is all typical of HORNS however, with there being a pervading sense of playfulness to all the music throughout. Clearly the musicians are having a great time, as you can almost hear the smirks in the delivery of late-night jazz number Fly Me To The Darkside Of The Moon and a metalized version of LOUIS PRIMA’s Sing Sing Sing (aptly repurposed here as Scream Scream Scream). That attitude permeates the material throughout and leads to some truly bizarre brilliance. First Time In Infernal Paradise sees domineering metal riffs supported by a percussion section fit for SANTANA before channelling a borderline-doo-wop energy in its chorus, accentuated by suitably cheesy backing singers. 25 Or 6 To 4 on the other hand sounds like Starsky & Hutch car chase music combined with grunge, and Insolvent straddles a line between vaudeville classic James Bond themes and CARCASS. It’s all suitably over the top and, although not every musical joke lands (in particular, some of the spoken word elements that tie the album together and The Unavoidable Ballad border on cringe-inducing), there is a genuine sense of fun throughout.

Supplementing the original material are a number of covers sprinkled throughout the record which are not only unique in execution, but also unexpected choices. The swing ensemble arrangement of JUDAS PRIEST’s Hell Patrol sees its intensity reinterpreted by a roaming double bass (note: not the pedal variety), shuffling pianos and vocals that would make Sinatra proud. Understated FAITH NO MORE epic Ashes To Ashes is delivered surprisingly faithfully through a horn section (not to mention Julien Jacquemon’s very convincing Mike Patton impression), and the heavy metal musical approach to KIM WILDE’s Kids In America provides a fitting closer to an off the wall album.

All in all, HORNS’ self-titled debut is one of the more original albums to grace the peripheries of the metal genre in some time. It’s unquestionably both an authentic metal album and a big band jazz album at the same time, but somehow makes those two quite distinct sounds work in perfect unison. Moreover, there’s something incredibly satisfying about hearing clearly serious musicians take a light-hearted approach to producing music. While this is a masterful execution of genre fusion, HORNS lean heavily into the absurdity of their musical endeavour rather than being po-faced about it – the end result being simply a hell of a lot of fun.

Rating: 8/10

Horns is out now via self-release.

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