What’s that old joke about drummer’s fronting bands? In all seriousness though Sal Abruscato, the former drummer of Type O Negative and Life Of Agony has come into his own with his new band A Pale Horse Named Death. Sal, the dark horse, has been hiding three things from us for a long time: that he can play guitar pretty well, he’s a pretty good vocalist, and that he can write songs.
Of course the shadow of the now immortal Peter Steele will loom over Sal and the other Type O Negative members for the rest of their careers, but to compare A Pale Horse Named Death to TON is very narrow and short-sighted. APHND is of the slow-sludgy kind of doom that gave birth to bands like Down, but at the same time there is a heavy helping of Alice In Chains style alternative metal that gives the songs a mass appeal. Throw in some Southern-Gothic steeped lyrics and you’ve got a very enticing formula.
‘And Hell Will Follow Me’ opens the proceedings with a nod to the odd intros of Type O Negative before getting into the album proper with ‘As Black As My Heart’, which sways through it’s grungy mid-tempo riff. ‘To Die In Your Arms’ has a great Alice In Chains style riff and a catchy sing-a-long chorus that will be a live gem. ‘Heroin Train’ is the kind of heavy Alt Rock that recalls the brief partnership of Rob Halford and John 5 - under the moniker of 2wo - who’s album ‘Voyeurs’ was a bit of an overlooked classic in the old Nothing Records catalogue. ‘Devil In The Closet’ is one of the real standout tracks on the album - the slow sludgy riff and swampy guitar sounds sound nice and bluesy in a “selling your soul at the crossroads” way. ‘Cracks In The Walls’ follows on quite nicely from predecessor with it’s lightly picked guitar over it’s slow bass and heavy hitting drums giving the whole song a measured approach that is quite quickly thrown out of the window. ‘Bad Dream’ sounds like it was meant for the saw soundtrack with its power tool samples, screams and repetitive industrial loops, a nice if superfluous interlude.
‘Bath In My Blood’ is a short and angry track that sounds like it was written more with live performance in mind which kind of stalls the flow of the album a bit. ‘Pill Head’ has no such issues though as it goes back to the formula of ‘Devil In The Closet’ for a nice swampy doom track that, again makes for another standout song. ‘Meet The Wolf’ turns the distortion and keyboards up a couple of notches but retains that nice bluesy feel. ‘Serial Killer’ is another catchy grungy-metal track that would make for a decent single, or even better, a good song to drive your car too. ‘When Crows Descend Upon You’ goes down the anthemic route utilising those keyboards subtly and effectively before kicking it into high gear again for another sing-a-long chorus. The song on the album ‘Die Alone’ is simply stunning - it’s sumptuous guitar work and slow pace means that this will be closing the band’s shows for as long as they keep playing them.
This is a very promising album from a band that aren’t even on a label yet. The production is excellent and the songs are well written and performed. There are a couple in the tracks that maybe stall the momentum, but Sal is giving us our money’s worth here. Lets hope there will be more and that A Pale Horse Named Death isn’t just a one-trick pony.
http://www.apalehorsenameddeath.com
http://www.myspace.com/apalehorsenameddeath
