Ontario’s HOUNSKULL Drop RPG-Inspired Double Album ‘The Faces of Evil’
Here’s an album with frenetic energy, high fantasy, and all the joy of creative liberty. It’s ‘The Faces of Evil’ (2023) by HOUNSKULL from Mississauga, Ontario. Hardly their first offering (the band has been active for over a decade, this is their 4th LP), but it may be the first you’re hearing of them and, in that case, you’re in for a party.
The Faces of Evil is a driven album from start to finish, plunging you headlong into an immersive dimension of sound. Themed around fantasy role playing games, it necessarily draws from a wealth of psychedelic, progressive, groove, doom, and heavy metal influences to bring us a boiling cauldron of badassery.
The song titles help to orient us to the landscape. Here we have “Goblin Priest,” “Clockwork Wizard,” and “Star Bard” seeking a “Path to the Sun” and encountering a “Sunless Citadel” along the way. Other tracks intrigue the imagination, such as “Take Over,” “Universal Cosmic Destroyer,” “Lapse of Existence,” and “Mother of All.” The band describes some of the ideas and notable influences behind these tracks in Some Buzz below.
“Star Bard” is my favorite cut from this mammoth offering. It starts with a heroic, medieval sounding riff that certainly nods in appreciation of one the band’s influences, The Lord Weird Slough Feg. It’s a romping, energetic number you can’t help but get swept up by. At one point, it ventures into a tavern song and you can picture our adventurers pausing to sing with a big frosty mug in hand before rejoining the fray. At 3:48 guitarist Eliza Tamo busts out a hair-flying solo that is not only Sabbath-touched, but features mandolin sounding effects as it progresses. While all this is happening, bassist Kyle White and drummer Nathan Fernandez are locked in some intense foot-shuffling.
“Sunless Citadel” is another standout. Opening with resolute, meditative riffing and the plodding of the drums & cymbals that reminds me ever so gently of Sleep’s Dopesmoker. It doesn’t last long, though, for soon we’re caught in a swirling sonic current, with dramatic vocal attack possessed by the spirit of Serj Tankien. The song takes all kinds of chances, too, which is refreshing – even if the minutes of deep breathing took some getting used to. The rhythmic heart-beat drumming and unsettling distortion that accompanies it had me feeling like I was at an ayahuasca ceremony (if you breathe along with it, it becomes remarkably calming). Brave chugging guitar follows, counterpointed by chill bass plucking, and then the mood becomes doomy and somber, exiting to rippling feedback and electronic noises, which is juxtaposed by stately acoustic playing.
All of this – however bizarre – serves to reinforce the concept that we are indeed in a realm that defies reality. It’s a Daliesque universe, but one that a listener can ultimately escape into.
The Faces of Evil by Hounskull releases on Friday, October 20th (pre-order here). Stick it on a playlist with Slough Feg, Melvins, System of a Down, Dungeon Weed, and Ethereal Riffian.
Give ear…
SOME BUZZ
Psychedelic metal trio Hounskull embark on a thrilling adventure filled with heroes, gods, and unexpected tempo changes. Littered with RPG, computer game, and Dungeons & Dragons references, 'The Faces of Evil’ (2023) sees a wealth of worlds collide.
“The Faces of Evil has been in the works for years now,” says the band, “We had the album written before the lockdown but pushed off recording until we were able to bunker down and get it done. The main idea of the album is essentially an audio version of an RPG game or TTRPG like DND. It’s our first album where our drummer Nathan Fernandez wrote with us, thus our most experimental and intricate yet. Musically inspired by '70s prog, doom, and stoner metal, merging a unique blend to create something new. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Kyle White, it was a monster of a double album to start and finish, but we are very excited for everyone to hear it.”
Opening with “Beginnings,” this intro track was inspired by old video titles screens; its title is taken from the Mother/Earthbound series. Hold on tight, and let the games begin… Segueing into the title track, the party members: the Goblin Priest, Star Bard, and Clockwork Wizard are introduced to a backdrop of distorted guitars, riffs, and time signature changes. In the magical “Clockwork Wizard,” inspired by the 1971 film The Abominable Dr Phibes, we find the Wizard busily making potions for the hero to be able to perceive and control time differently.
Among the album’s track list, we find a trio of tracks based around 'control, alt, delete.’ “Take Over” is the first, representing 'control,’ this long instrumental sees The Faces of Evil’s hero, having entered the sunless citadel, begins to take over the big bad of the album: an omnipotent God. The driving rhythms and a fuzz-fueled sound of “Altær” with its psychedelia, thrash elements, mark the second of this trio representing 'alt’. “Universal Cosmic Destroyer”, portraying 'delete’, brings an array of time signature, rhythm and tempo changes. “Lapse of existence” marks the end and is sung from the perspective of someone at a tavern now retelling the story of what happened and the hero being gone but not yet forgotten. All that is left is outro “Mother of All”, it is a reprise of “Beginnings” but in a doom metal style.
Hounskull emerged in its full form in 2016, with an early incarnation of the band existing since 2012. The trio draw from a wide array of musical influences including the likes of Slough Feg, Brocas Helm, and Black Sabbath, to name a few. Striving to push their creativity to produce a unique twist with their music, Hounskull take inspiration from video games, RPGs and card games. The forthcoming album sees references to the likes of Magic The Gathering and D&D, for example, hidden within. During their career Hounskull have opened for the likes of Alien Weaponry and Graveyard.
