Any band with the word ‘horse’ in its name should be heavier than the gonads of a prize bull that’s gone without for months. This debut album from Aussie quartet Horsehunter, achieving a label reissue just months after its initial release, will indeed challenge the strongest shoulders.

Caged In Flesh (Magnetic Eye) sees its initial riff kick through a cymbal shimmer with the might of Atlas’ left boot; slow, yet dancing through colossal opener ‘Stoned to Death’. Leads flicker briefly in and out, the bass fizzes and lumbers into the quicker, rampant aggression of the second movement and vocals shift from booming cleans to savage roars. The agility of the musicianship, particularly of the lead solo halfway through this monstrous track, really allows the sound to breathe and gives added vitality, counteracting the slow, deliberate riff of the third movement nicely. That stellar lead squeals above the fulminating power, reaching the stars by the coda, with Nick Cron‘s pummelling yet measured drums laying the bedrock. It’s a magnificent early statement, a real flexing of both muscle and inventive potency, and fully portrays the mood the title demands.

A brutal, crawling intensity takes over the title track, chords and solitary beats dropping like manhole covers from the sky in a second stage pregnant with the expectation of explosion. When it comes it slurs and chugs in as a cushion for hostile screams, riffs and bass notes so gargantuan they morph under the sheer, pulsing weight. The largely serene ‘Nightfall’ is a delicious departure before the fluctuating, atmospheric coruscation of closer ‘Witchery’ twists both the mind, feet and soul in an amalgam of Sludgy groove and surprising yet ultimately euphoric Post-Black finale.

Too often its detractors malign ‘low-end’ metal music as the output of neanderthals; a narrow, one-dimensional blunder through mud with no variation or ability to change course. Those of us who are bewitched by its weight and tolling resonance know also of its myriad inventors, their creative talent and nuances which give light to the glorious shade. On the evidence here, Horsehunter are certainly pounding a road to this pantheon.

8.5/10

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PAUL QUINN