Spearheaded by Type O Negative‘s founding member, Sal Abruscato, and fast becoming the poster boys for gothic doom metal, A Pale Horse Named Death know how to capture the dark and brooding essence of doom. The band’s fourth album descends into the more eerie aspects of the band’s sound, creating sinister and spellbinding atmospheres that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Combining elements of post-grunge with gothic metal and doom, A Pale Horse Named Death has a gritty musical edge, creating ethereal darkness through the heavy bass fuzz.
‘Infernum’ opens the album with a two minute soundscape packed full of spooky eeriness, as dark spirits summoned by conjuring witches meets the haunting chants of a ghostly church choir. It is a scene that feels like it has been directly taken from a haunted, dark and mystical England in the middle ages. These brief soundscapes are A Pale Horse’s staples, and from the point in which they finish you are then thrown into the hypnotic trance of Type O Negative style fuzz and melody, capturing the attention of the restless melancholy that stirs within your soul. There is definitely an ornate gothic grandeur to this album, whilst still maintaining the same vibes from previous albums it feels like fresh and comes from a new perspective. Utilising personal themes and interests, mainly the dark arts, A Pale Horse have created a recorded that thrives on balance. The album uses the eternal battle between light and dark to achieve this balance, but ultimately the album reflects the darkness of the world at its current time. It is dark and eerily soothing music for dark and restless souls.
Gothic metal is something that doesn’t rely on heaviness to appeal and captivate it’s audience, even though Sal probably knows this it didn’t stop him and the band packing Infernum In Terra with thunderous riffs. Like the hammering hooves of the pale horse itself, the album’s riffs pack a heavy punch, interwoven with ghostly, spine-chilling layered melodies, giving the music a haunting and harrowing atmosphere. Sal’s vocals serve as unearthly and mystical guide through the dark, brooding album. The two halves of the album are interested by a ninety second interval, ominously named ‘It Is Done’ in which we hear a woman reading aloud what appears to be some sort of ritual rites. ‘It Is Done’ builds on what ‘Infernum’ started at the beginning of the album, capturing the shadowy nature of the album whilst adding an extra bit of trepidation for the listener.
There is also a strange lucidity to this album, even though the songs rock you gently into a hazy, hypnotic trance, the clarity of the subject matter makes you very aware of the inherent darkness within the album. While this is contradictory, the album has a dream like quality, which reflects the initial, primal emotions you experience when you are aware of but not quite initiated in the spiritual side of yourself, thrusting you into a strange world where the lines between reality and illusion blur. Nothing captures this more than ‘Slave To The Master’, with its mesmeric organ passages you will easily be entranced in A Pale Horse Named Death’s otherworldly vision.
With autumn on the way, the gothic beauty contained within Infernum In Terra is perfect for acting out all the pathetic fallacy scenarios that you have held in your head for the last few months. A Pale Horse Named Death are definitely putting gothic metal back to the forefront of people’s consciousness. Even though the album doesn’t break new ground it does make the already darkened towers on goth metal’s castle significantly more ornate.