Detailed Reviews [La Horde - 2015 - "Dystopie"]

Prolusion. French band LA HORDE was formed in 2011, with vocalist Lapravotte the central person in the formation if I understand their biography correctly. They released their debut album "En Passant Par le Monde" back in 2012. "Dystopie" dates back to 2015, and is their second CD. As was the case with their debut album, it was released through French label Fantai'zic Productions.

Analysis. Not all the music submitted to the progressor website revolves around progressive rock or progressive metal. La Horde is among those bands, so those with a fixed interest in productions of a strictly progressive nature will not find this album to be all that interesting. The main genre in this case is metal, and a fairly intense variety of it at that. What La Horde does best of all is to mix and blend elements from various subsets of metal. A key detail are the lead vocals, a tad toned down in the mix but otherwise easily recognizable as the kind of aggressive, shouting vocals you will find among punk and hardcore bands. In this case a tight and refined take on that vocal style, without guttural or uncontrolled aspects, everything is tight and under fine control throughout. Apart from the token instrumental concluding this album, obviously. The compositions as such tends to move back and forth quite a bit. The electric guitar is obviously the key instrument, tightly backed by bass and drums, and the various riff constructions are in a fairly constant motion. Tight, hard and solid hardcore style riffs are paired off with looser, slow heavy metal oriented riff arrangements, more pace-filled and vibrant thrash metal style cascades have their place as well, and always with room and space for some more refined post-hardcore excursions as well. Apart from the style variations, the defining characteristics of this band is that their material is tight and controlled. The raw and rougher edges often a feature in bands with a hardcore orientation isn't a part of this band's repertoire, and a net result of that is a sound and a style that, combined with the various genre elements incorporated, comes across as rather accessible, relatively speaking. For a hardcore oriented audience their choice to use their native French language for the lyrics may limit their overall appeal somewhat however, due to the lyrics often being just as or more important than the music for many hardcore fans.

Conclusion. While La Horde won't be a band that will find a lot of favor among progressive rock and metal fans, those with an interest in bands that mix and blend elements of heavy metal, thrash metal and hardcore into a firm, solid and well developed whole should find this band to be one that warrants an inspection. Especially for those who prefer their lyrics to be in French.

Progmessor: September 20th 2017
The Rating Room