ALBUM REVIEW: When The World Becomes Undone – A Pale Horse Named Death
It has been just over five years since A PALE HORSE NAMED DEATH released their last album, Lay My Soul To Waste, an overwhelmingly well-received offering that showcased the New York collective’s penchant for crafting doom-laden musical compositions and apocalyptic lyrical content, and placing them alongside some surprisingly heavenly harmonies. In that time, the band’s front man and creative lynchpin, and former drummer of legendary gothic metallers TYPE O NEGATIVE, Sal Abruscato, returned to his other previous outfit LIFE OF AGONY for a triumphant comeback tour, and also contributed to their most recent release, 2017’s A Place Where There’s No Pain. Now, back with an outlet in which Abruscato can be as creatively free as he sees fit, A PALE HORSE NAMED DEATH have put together a new album: When The World Becomes Undone.
Comprising of 13 tracks, running to a grand total of just over one hour, the band take dark, at times bordering on morbid, lyrics, inspired by Abruscato’s own personal turmoil, as well as the many negative events that seem to have plagued the world in recent years, and deeply passionate layered vocals, and mix them all together with a metal sound that certainly does not hold back from showing how truly bleak it is, to form firm musical foundations on which the rest of the album is built upon.
Each song has its own unique elements, leaving the listener never quite sure where the American five-piece will go next, which makes things all the more exciting. As It Begins, a brief, rather avant-garde, opening instrumental, utilises the use of ringing church bells and people sobbing, along with a guitar riff that gets heavier as it gradually comes into sonic focus. This is swiftly followed by the title track, a multi-layered affair which goes from gentle piano playing to a pulsating riff with relative ease.
The third number, Love The Ones You Hate, is a more accessible offering to the casual listener, combining the lyrical theme of intentional hurt and betrayal from friends and family with pounding drum beats and mesmerising guitar solos. Following this, Fell In My Hole pretty much sticks to the formula of the previous song, however, things proceed at a more progressive rate. The track then effectively makes a silky smooth transition into Succumbing To The Event Horizon, a very well put together, if rather short, instrumental, centred by an echoing riff, which gives it a kind of Middle Eastern vibe. Song number six, Vultures, switches back and forth from passive slowness to intense aggression throughout, and sees the quintet seemingly aiming to emulate the work of NINE INCH NAILS, and succeeding.
The rest of When The World Becomes Undone pretty much treads the same path, with a few notable exceptions. For example, The Woods sees the collective opt for a radically different approach, eschewing any real melodies in favour of a haunting mix of crunching footsteps, tribal chanting, and heavy breathing that just gets louder and faster before coming to a sudden stop at around the two-minute mark, with the last 40 seconds of the track featuring nothing but total silence, and this is an experiment that pays off well for the band. Closure finishes proceedings by bringing the album back to its starting point, an atmospheric instrumental dominated by church bells and sobbing.
Overall, When The World Becomes Undone is a well-crafted collection of songs, which sees A PALE HORSE NAMED DEATH electing to mainly stick to what is now their signature combination of doom and gothic metal. However, the album also effectively shows how the band are unafraid to make some radical departures from that by making a few musical experiments, and how much they have matured, as a unit, and as individuals, since their last release.
Rating: 8/10
When The World Becomes Undone is due for release January 18th via Long Branch Records/SPV Records.
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