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RAGING SPEEDHORN “Night Wolf”
RAGING SPEEDHORN “Night Wolf”
By Dr. Abner Mality
RAGING SPEEDHORN have got themselves one of the worst covers ever on “Night Wolf”. Sweet Jesus, what a ridiculous image! Well, we must forge on past this atrocity and dive into the music…
These Brits could never quite get the breakthrough many thought they would. It’s been quite some time since their last effort, so for many, this might be their first run-in with SPEEDHORN. To say they keep things simple is an understatement. This is basic to the point of ape-like. In some cases, it works well. In others, it’s just so simplified that you lose IQ points listening to it. To come up with an easy description of RAGING SPEEDHORN, think of PANTERA running headlong into ORANGE GOBLIN with punk attitude sprinkled on the top. The groove is the be-all and end-all of the SPEEDHORN approach.
On the winning side of the scale, I liked the stalking thump of “The Blood Code” and the racing energy of “Comin’ In Hard”. Some tracks rely on old “borrowed” riffs like “Blood Red Sky” and the title track, but the band overcome the overwhelming familiarity with sheer grit and force. The strong production by Russ Russell is an advantage at all times. But some tracks like “Can’t Stop” and “Every Night’s Alright For Fighting” are just so derivative and knuckle-dragging that no amount of energy can erase their shortcomings. Even on the good tracks, RAGING SPEEDHORN come across as a hugely unoriginal band.
Live in front of a rowdy drunken crowd is where this might become magic. Otherwise, it’s a pretty mixed bag.
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