Ghost Horizon - The Punishment of Life Review

From all Metal styles, I guess Black Metal is the one with the greater variety. That’s paradoxal because in the beginning down there in the 1980’s Black metal was mostly known for being exactly the opposite. It is indeed raw, poorly prduced and unpolished. I guess I’ve said that many times before, however it’s never enough to the ones who about to Metal. Black Metal nowadays is so diverse that actually the only feature that links all Black Metal styles is the shrieking vocals. Nothing else.

Along the years bands have added too many features to Black Metal array giving it a richer and meaningful personality. It’s not only about Satanism, it’s much more. Let’s say that Black Metal’s array goes about all dark and gloomy things that exist in this sad and lonely and pathetic little planet. It’s the ethereal, the unhuman, the beyond, the suffering, and a lot more. Anguish, fear, rebellion, anger, wraith, and why not, some sweetness seasoned with some real life. That’s what we see here in Ghost Horizon’s “The Punishment of Life,” an album that explores all the potencialities that modern Black metal delivers to its loyal fans. For the record, the general mood in “The Punishment of Life” is the Atmospheric Post Black Metal – whatever this means. have you, my dear child of the night, ever heard of muzak? That kind of music that may fit everywhere and tastes like nothing. Well, some Black Metal bands have distorted its idea and built up some pretty interesting textures and contrasts with it. It seems that muzak fits perfectly to the harsh and raw potential of Black Metal guitars and growls. Ghost Horizon show that flawlessly here. This mix allows the band to fly over the debris of this torn civilization and explores other horizons.

This is an album that is diverse per se. The fan won’t find too different tracks from each other. They pretty much linear and as I always say that’s not bad. It’s just a band with attitude and that knows what they really want from life. In fact, Ghost Horizon keep the rawness early Black Metal bands loved, however in another different way. Tracks aren’t long as it would be expected from their style and, belive me that’s a plus.

Ghost Horizon “The Punishment of Life” will be independently released on July 09th.

Track Listing: