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SPV/Steamhammer Records
by Craig Hartranft, 05.02.2013
Sal Abruscato (Type O Negative, Life of Agony) returns with his A Pale Horse Named Death project offering a second slab of heaviness with Lay My Soul To Waste. His partner in heaviness, once more, in the studio is guitarist, engineer, and producer Matt Brown. Together they pick up where And Hell Will Follow Me left off.
Which is basically an album that blurs the lines between stoner, sludge and doom metal by wrapping it in a classic heavy metal wrapper. As before the music is thick and layered, dark and brooding, and slaps your ears and stomps your brain with concrete blocks. This is not happy music nor are the themes. Shallow Grave, for instance, is about a guy killing his ex-girlfriend.
Then there's The Needle In You, In The Sleeping Death, Killer By Night, Dead of Winter, Devil Came With A Smile, all titles that reveal rather grim stuff. If there is an liveliness to be found it comes in Killer By Night and maybe DMSLT; if anything both have nice guitar solos. Otherwise, the signature songs that bring that grim foreboding APHND sound are the two lengthiest pieces, Day of the Storm and Cold Dark Mourning. If you're sad, despondent, or being treated for depression, I wouldn't recommend listening to Lay My Soul To Waste for long periods of time. Otherwise, this is prime APHND, establishing their signature sound.
Sal Abruscato and A Pale Horse Named Death bring another slab dark and foreboding heaviness not for the faint of heart.
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