I liked The Burning’s debut album ‘Storm The Walls’ and thought that their sophomore effort, ‘Rewakening’, was even better. Their third album ‘Hail The Horde’ is once again better than its predecessor, so if the Danish metal quartet continues to up the ante for every album my head is going to explode from excitement around album six or seven…

But for now let’s concentrate on ‘Hail The Horde’. The Burning always dabbled in straight-in-your face, groovy hardcore and thrash metal and never believed in complicating things more than necessary. This is still true, however, the outfit’s new album is much more inventive and diverse than anything they have done before. Frontman Johnny Haven actually sings now and then instead of just shouting in key, and even though the riffs are still mean as hell new guitarist Alex Kjeldsen brings new shades to the palette (mostly shades of black, but still…).

Also hats off for (in no particular order):
– The great production courtesy of Jacob Bredahl (of The Kandidate)
– The line “Violence is not the answer. It’s the question and the answer is yes” on the title track
– The boogie-ish riff and the “Hail! Hail! Fire at will!”-chorus on the same track
– The intro to ‘Wolf Moon’, which is kind of an update on Metallica’s ‘One’. The same track features – gasp! – an acoustic guitar
– The silly titled, but quite epic ‘Baptized In Bong Water’

Genre: Hardcore/thrash metal
Who: The Burning
Album: Hail The Horde
Label: Massacre Records
Year: 2010
Country: Denmark
Language: English
DOWNLOAD VIA

Recommended tracks:
Hail The Horde – Wolf Moon – Baptized In Bong Water – Flames Be Your Friend