ninehertz

1. • Podge
   • OUT NOW on Calculon Records
     
     A Horse Called War - Stumble at every hurdle - CD EP
     
     
     5 blistering tracks from the UK's freshest sludge band
     
     For fans of Charger, Mistress, Iron Monkey, Eyehategod, Palehorse, Lazarus Blackstar & many more.
     
     5 Track & Video CD EP
     
     The track "Bodil Joensen" features Martin Ives of Charger on guest vocals
     
     Available NOW on Calculon Records
     www.Calculon.co.uk
     www.myspace.com/CalculonRecords
   • [14:31 on 08/12/07]
2. • Carey
   • i'll have one. how much?
   • [14:43 on 08/12/07]
3. • Hopkins
   • This cd is fucking ace!
     nft
   • [14:50 on 08/12/07]
4. • Podge
   • Carey says:

     i'll have one. how much?
     
     i'll drop one off with your 9hz CD, £4 in person
     
     
     Hopkins says:

     This cd is fucking ace!
     nft
     
     glad you like it
   • [15:03 on 08/12/07]
5. • Carey
   • Podge says:

     
     

     Carey says:

     i'll have one. how much?

     
     i'll drop one off with your 9hz CD, £4 in person
     
     
     
     next weekend'll do, you don't have to go out of your way...
   • [17:55 on 08/12/07]
6. • Dave_AHCW
   • I wish I had a copy. Fucking Royal Mail.
   • [20:58 on 08/12/07]
7. • Podge
   • Epic hellride review
     
     A Horse Called War – Stumble At Every Hurdle (Calculon Records)
     By Jay Snyder
     January 29, 2008
     
     Nasty, drug infected sludge is the specialty of UK scum peddlers A Horse Called War. I heard a portion of their previous demo but never got a chance to hear the whole thing. If you are fan of the UK’s nastiest dope dealers such as Iron Monkey, Charger, Hard to Swallow, Among the Missing, Hot n’ Steamy Monkey Love, etc. then AHCW will be right up your alley.
     
     This disease infected metal bludgeons the senses with grating, syrupy riffs that groove, drone and tear into punk-y outbursts in a few select instances. Sickening, screams of anguish and withdrawal echo through the mess of chopped up rhythms and burn-out riffs with appropriately deep growls backing things up when necessary.
     
     They fire on all cylinders with the impeccably titled “Son and Heir of a Mongrel Bitch”, a blistering nine minute epic that shows a wide glance of all their genre mash-ups. Road burning, punk riffs set things off at a fevered pitch that slowly descends down a slope of slower than thou hate sludge riffing. Groove is present at all times even when the band is mired deep down in a swamp of miserable, lurching instrument abuse.
     
     Things fall into a more traditional groove with “Backdoor Sluts 9” that channels the fat, leaden riffs of Iron Monkey. The deep, distorted backing growls have a weird distortion on them that recalls some of the vocal lunacy on Today is the Day’s In the Eyes of God LP. Slinky bass presence entrenches the groove deep into your auditory center for maximum damage.
     
     The ass-kicking “Ruined Everything” brings the crust punk elements to the forefront again with a grimy Motorhead boogie riff that drops off the deep end into a pit of wretched molasses metal. Once again, even when AHCW is at their sickest n’ slowest they never lose sight of packing their tunes with megaton riffs that you’ll want to come back to over and over again.
     
     The uneasy pacing of “Live to Loose” is pound for pound the EP’s shortest, fastest offering. It must be noted that AHCW has no concept of time as this “short” ditty manages to leap over the five minute mark. The first half of this song is “all go, no slow” with gritty, circle pit inducing tempos keeping things at a murderous level of intensity. Later, the pummeling sludge and wicked vermin friendly grooves send the track back into familiar waters.
     
     Closing dirge “Bodil Joensen”is a hellish piece of work that completely switches gears from the last track by sinking into the dirt for an extended lament of hulking, doom/drone featuring the album’s most psychotic vocal outbursts. A killer Sabbath soaked riff provides some much needed swing to help alleviate the maggot infested crawl of the tune’s earlier emanations.
     To round out this powerhouse EP, a video clip of live performances is included for “Ruined Everything” (it is the included version of the song and not a live recording). These guys look like they totally lose their minds when they play this stuff live, especially vocalist Shane. He looks out of his mind to say the least.
     
     An excellent debut EP on all counts here. They really loaded this thing up too. The actual run time is almost on par with a good number of LPs out there. Hell, it is longer than a lot of LPs, so you should know that you are in the presence of some weighty material. Hell with an EP this long, I can’t even imagine what a full-length could have in store. If you are a fan of that whole skuzzy, UK sludge/punk/drone/grind thing then AHCW’s Stumble at Every Hurdle deserves its rightful place in your collection. This isn’t just a record but rather an unrelenting, mental beating that stands an inch from your face daring you to do something to prevent it.
   • [21:10 on 30/01/08]
8. • Carey
   • score!
   • [21:19 on 30/01/08]
9. • Podge
   • indeed, a gushing review is always good
   • [21:21 on 30/01/08]
10. • James D
    • The band sent one to us at DSD to review, so expect that in the next couple of weeks.
    • [11:58 on 03/02/08]
11. • Podge
    • www.dieshellsuit.co.uk - review
      A Horse Called War "Stumble At Every Hurdle"
      We rate this: 7 out of 10
      Readers rate this: 10 out of 10
      
      For anyone that misses Iron Monkey, the sludge gods who made this nasty hardcore variant (Grindcore sonics slowed down to Black Sabbath levels basically) their own, then A Horse Called War are here to carry the torch. From Thetford in East Anglia, where I imagine not a lot goes down, these guys sound like they’ve had time to hone their art to perfection on this 5-track affair. That’s if perfection means thick, bowel-worrying riffs and relentless barking vocals. It’s like being thrown around in the back of a van while a smelly, rabid dog repeatedly attacks you.
      
      It could be accused of repetitiveness and sameyness track-to-track, but that would be missing the point. The point being to articulate eternal misery I assume. It’s been done before, but rarely as well as this, if well means hideously gruelling. However there are occasional touches of light, like a flash of guitar harmonies in the middle of track two "Back Door Sluts 9" that remind me of those transcendent doom visionaries, Yob. Such moments lift AHCW out of the gutter for a few precious moments.
      
      This stuff makes Electric Wizard sound like a breath of fresh air. Nasty, nasty, nasty.
    • [17:28 on 30/03/08]
12. • James D
    • www.dieshellsuit.co.uk/article_detail.asp?rID=2281
      
      That's the full link if you want to comment in the forum or score it yourself.
    • [19:06 on 02/04/08]
13. • J Parker
    • Sorry Pete - you know ninenertz will always be my first love, its just James sends me free CDs- not all of which are crap! That AHCW is bloody great actually, think I was a bit stingy with my 7 out of 10. 7 and a half.
    • [09:17 on 03/04/08]
14. • Podge
    • Terrorizer live review
      
      Clearly sensing that things are hotting up literally, figuratively and alcoholically, on stride A Horse Called War, with vocalist Kevin stating “We’re A Horse Called War. Ave’ it!” The high octane EyeHateIronGodMonkey of AHCW ups the intensity, presenting an impressive maelstrom of vocal bile and acrid sludgy distortion.
      
      James Minton
      
      Terrorizer CD review terrorizer
      
      A Horse Called War (Calculon Records) have reared their ugly heads with a quicker and somewhat groovier take on the sludge format with their debut CDEP ‘Stumble At Every Hurdle’. The 5 songs on the EP are potent and driving, recalling the sounds of late 90’s UK sludge bands like Iron Monkey only having a slightly more metallic tinge to them with tracks like ‘Backdoor Sluts 9’ and ‘Bodil Joensen’ sticking out from the bunch.
      
      [7] Chris Naughton
    • [11:14 on 04/05/08]

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