This self-proclaimed "Pagan Black Metal Horde" belongs to the "below average" qualitative category and does not deserve more than a passing mention. These guys are from Poland, and they sound fairly rough, but do not expect anything really raw like Graveland or Veles. On the other hand, do not expect anything like Lux Occulta either. Hornagest is a guitar-based band, playing uncomplicated, semi-melodic black metal, which also happens to be very boring and generic. First of all, the singer for some reason felt the need to throw some clean vocals into the mix that are simply laughable. The guy can't sing for the life of him. Luckily you have to endure his vocal atrocities only several times, but then there is the music. "Blask Pioruna" is half-baked at best and just incompetent at worst, not to mention that it all has already been done to death countless times. It may sound passable at first but becomes very dull very fast once you realize that the whole thing is going nowhere. One song flows into another and absolutely nothing happens. Remember that arithmetical rule you learned in elementary school? You know, the one saying that no matter how many times you switch the variables around, the sum total will still remain the same. Well, that's basically what you get on the course of these six tracks. And whenever the band attempt to pull-off a melodic lead line in order to catch your attention, it just comes out really amateur and pathetic. The whole thing sort of palls on you, eventually reaching a dead end. Avoid.

© 2001 boris