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After seeing the band with the new drummer live last year in Moscow, I decided to grab a copy of their only album and the effort was worth!
The Russian outfit deals with a sort of crushing Death metal with some blastbeats but mostly mid-tempos; the speed increases sometimes also without blastbeats, and the growling is alternated with Black screaming or Grindcore screams in the vein of Dismembered Fetus, but in these 9 tracks what really stands out is the unforeseeable guitar plot. During the fast parts Horror God sound close to a bastard child between Kataklysm, Blockheads and Enthroned, whereas the slow parts and the mid-tempos are harder to compare and may occasionally exhume Demented Ted.
The drums are like a tank and constitute the backbone of the tracks, still it's the guitars that are the leading mind of each of the 9 entities included; the vocals are the hand holding a sharp knife to skin the listener, while the bass is like the heartbeat that can be heard only once in a while when slapped, or when the rest of the instruments is silent or when the bass pulsations are real tight. The recording is another jewel from the well-respected Primordial studio, whose sounds are a trademark by now, which - like I said earlier - has the sole tiny fault of hiding the bass lines; I know this is typical for many extreme metal releases, but I belong to the school of those who love to listen to the bass clearly as often as possible.
All things considered, the record is a must-own for Death metal aficionados and an album which can be appreciated fairly positively by Blacksters, but songs such as the dynamic "We don't hear, we don't see, we don't know" or the highlight "Abort" (I'm translating, as all of the compositions and the titles are in Russian) can stun any Metal lover due to the guitar but also the Siberian chants, which sound similar to Tibetan ones for those of you not familiar with them; this is because the singer actually comes from Siberia and so he's been able to find a good match of his roots with the music. However, all the vocals are actually amazing and very few will find them boring: actually, if you pay attention to them, you'll notice the optimum performance throughout all the range. Fans of Melodic death won't meet their match in "Cold Shine", if not for the last 35 seconds of the closing track, so I recommend this record to those who love traditional Death metal with no references to any area in particular: no Swedish death with the exception of a few riffs in the opener, no Floridian death, and not even an ounce of German or British Death. I'm aware it sounds absurd but this manner of composing Death is loyal to the classics without sticking to any style or band for enough time to find the despicable copy and paste feeling.
One last mention goes to the cryptic but well-chosen artwork based on black and green, with the lyrics and the notes in gold yellow, but it's a pity the lyrics aren't translated into English here and not even on their website: I know some Russian and I can tell you they deal with a tyrant, a person, fire opening, abortion, freedom and conspiracy of silence, but this doesn't do justice to the involvement generated by the full comprehension of a language. If More Hate Productions or whoever else should decide on a repress of the album, this could be a good starting idea; for the moment I invite you to discover a new band from the ever-growing underground of Mother Russia.

MARKUS GANZHERRLICH - January 3, 2012

	'*Cold Shine' (More Hate Productions) MARK: 80/100*



	After seeing the band with the new drummer live last year in Moscow, I decided to grab a copy of their only album and the effort was worth! The Russian outfit deals with a sort of crushing Death metal with some blastbeats but mostly mid-tempos; the speed increases sometimes also without blastbeats, and the growling is alternated with Black screaming or Grindcore screams in the vein of Dismembered Fetus, but in these 9 tracks what really stands out is the unforeseeable guitar plot. During the fast parts Horror God sound close to a bastard child between Kataklysm, Blockheads and Enthroned, whereas the slow parts and the mid-tempos are harder to compare and may occasionally exhume Demented Ted. The drums are like a tank and constitute the backbone of the tracks, still it's the guitars that are the leading mind of each of the 9 entities included; the vocals are the hand holding a sharp knife to skin the listener, while the bass is like the heartbeat that can be heard only once in a while when slapped, or when the rest of the instruments is silent or when the bass pulsations are real tight. The recording is another jewel from the well-respected Primordial studio, whose sounds are a trademark by now, which - like I said earlier - has the sole tiny fault of hiding the bass lines; I know this is typical for many extreme metal releases, but I belong to the school of those who love to listen to the bass clearly as often as possible. All things considered, the record is a must-own for Death metal aficionados and an album which can be appreciated fairly positively by Blacksters, but songs such as the dynamic "We don't hear, we don't see, we don't know" or the highlight "Abort" (I'm translating, as all of the compositions and the titles are in Russian) can stun any Metal lover due to the guitar but also the Siberian chants, which sound similar to Tibetan ones for those of you not familiar with them; this is because the singer actually comes from Siberia and so he's been able to find a good match of his roots with the music. However, all the vocals are actually amazing and very few will find them boring: actually, if you pay attention to them, you'll notice the optimum performance throughout all the range. Fans of Melodic death won't meet their match in "Cold Shine", if not for the last 35 seconds of the closing track, so I recommend this record to those who love traditional Death metal with no references to any area in particular: no Swedish death with the exception of a few riffs in the opener, no Floridian death, and not even an ounce of German or British Death. I'm aware it sounds absurd but this manner of composing Death is loyal to the classics without sticking to any style or band for enough time to find the despicable copy and paste feeling. One last mention goes to the cryptic but well-chosen artwork based on black and green, with the lyrics and the notes in gold yellow, but it's a pity the lyrics aren't translated into English here and not even on their website: I know some Russian and I can tell you they deal with a tyrant, a person, fire opening, abortion, freedom and conspiracy of silence, but this doesn't do justice to the involvement generated by the full comprehension of a language. If More Hate Productions or whoever else should decide on a repress of the album, this could be a good starting idea; for the moment I invite you to discover a new band from the ever-growing underground of Mother Russia. MARKUS GANZHERRLICH - January 3, 2012
	Line-up on this record: Sergei 'Bor' Borisov - g. (also in Membro Genitali Befurcator) Andrei 'Hydr' Rybkin - b. (also in Abstract Spirit) Max 'Shaman' Stepanov - v. and lyrics Anatoliy 'Al-Tron' Boichenko - d. (currently replaced by Chudo, also in Нечисть = Nechist) Contacts: Moscow - Russia E-mail: hydr@horrorgod.ru Official sites: http://www.horrorgod.ru http://www.myspace.com/horrorgodrussia Demo-/Disco-graphy: -Indifference.Freedom.Weakness (demo - 2007) -Cold Shine (Full length - 2009)