Horfixion

Self Inflicted Hell

Galy Records

6.5/10; Overall, this is a solid death-thrash album, but nothing to rave about.

36:25; 9 tracks.

In the ever expanding, somewhat stale world of death-thrash metal, there seem to be few innovators, plenty of followers and every now and then, a few bands that just bore the crap outta you.

Horfixion isn't one of those kinda bands, thankfully, but they're not that exciting either. Produced by Yannick St-Amand (Kataklysm, Quo Vadis, Neuraxis) and featuring Patrice Hamelin (Martyr) on drums, "Self Inflicted Hell" features some solid death-thrash metal, with a distinctive Quebec flavour.

Vocals on this album, courtesy of Samuel Landry who also performs guitar duties, are not bad by any means, but not special either. In fact, they sound like a mixture of old school 80's thrash vocals mixed with modern day hardcore screamy vocals. Add a Quebec accent to that, and you get a mix that I personally am not the least bit fond of. Patrice Hamelin wails away behind the kit, and is probably the most interesting part of the band. The guitars and bass, rounded off by Kevin St-Yves and Richard Gélinas, respectively, are pretty much what you'd expect from a standard death-thrash band from Quebec. My only qualm about this is that there is absolutely no differentiation from the guitars and bass. They all play the same thing. And the guitars sound like they need new strings.

With regards to songwriting, Samuel Landry has a long way to go. Sadly, none of the songs really grip me in the same way as the bands that Horfixion is compared to - Death, Testament and Kreator. Horfixion seems to be aiming for the technical death-thrash sound currently being enjoyed by bands such as Quo Vadis and Augury, but are falling short of their desired awesomeness.

Lastly, the production on this album is quite good, except for the guitars, which as I said before, sound like they've been using the same strings for the past 3 years.

Ryan Sequeira