Terzij de Horde – In One of These, I Am Your Enemy (Review)

Terzij de Horde are a black metal band from the Netherlands and this is their second album.

2015’s Self was so long ago that I wasn’t sure we’d ever hear anything from Terzij de Horde again. They’re back though, with 30 minutes of new material – spread over three tracks – that are as fiery and as destructive as the album’s striking cover.

Terzij de Horde play modern/post-black metal with elements of doom, post-rock, and hardcore skilfully woven into the music’s fabric. The well-written songs contain a wealth of nuanced extremity for the listener to explore. Each track brutalises while simultaneously offering up a burning vista of rapidly-vanishing opportunities and briefly-flourishing delights.

It’s readily apparent that the band have lost none of their strengths. When they’re fast, they’re lethal. The blackened guitars are imbued with just the right amount of melodic bite to lend the music an emotive depth, but not enough to detract from their murderous aggression. The music speeds along with razorblade sharpness as the singer spews harsh diatribes and unleashes unhinged screams. Brutal and precise, the band know how to cut to the quick.

When the music slows down, it becomes more multifaceted. The vicious heart of the band is till there, but now it is dressed up in post-metal resplendence, progressive bass rhythms, serrated riffing, post-rock introspection, post-hardcore emotion, or gloom-ridden doom atmosphere. All of it hits the spot, and all of it is wrapped tightly around the scathing blast beats which ultimately sit at the core of the band’s savage delivery.

In One of These, I Am Your Enemy is a very satisfying and rewarding work. Its short length belies its potency, and Terzij de Horde have produced a corker here.

Very highly recommended.