Hästspark – Ostiarius Inferni
Ozium Records – 2023
Rock, Metal, Stoner, Sludge, Doom
Rated: ****
I guess we were around sixteen back then, when me and some buddies started dicking around with instruments, pretending to be Life Of Agony or Rage Against The Machine. But coming out, swinging homeruns like Swedish Hästspark does, was never even possible for a second. The Hästspark dudes have ages somewhere between sixteen and eighteen, but when a vocalist sounds as mature as Leo Lyckholm Rehné does it’s impossible to hear or see them as that young. There are moments when you feel the vocalist has been through the wringer as much as Lemmy and was never phased for a moment. Looked adversary straight in the eye and never even blinked. And then to think that the Ostiarius Inferni album isn’t even their debut. Nope, they released their first album as a duo back in 2020, called Jötunn. But Ostiarius Inferni takes it all to an incredible new, high and on fire level. Just check out opening track Iron Horse, bursting through the gates and then delivering riff after riff at galloping speed and walloping your ears with massive drum work. Stoner, gritty by way of the sludge overtones and the gruff vocals, only opened up by the solo work later on and serving once again as the perfect battering ram to open up the gates for your love of Hästspark. It’s on Sleeping In The Graves, the gruff and the gritty get a cleaner treatment, but only towards the end of the track. For this is the slow burning doom and roll, rolling over and giving up, and letting all the doom tones wash over you. As if you are slowly being buried alive, which fits the song title perfectly. But the way the vocals go clean, shift color, along with the guitar give voice to the ability these young cats have. And off to the races we are again with next track Shadow of Voices, faster in tempo, faster in delivering payoffs, Shadow of Voices seems perfect for whatever venue you might end up seeing Hästspark live. This has Hästspark anthem written all over it! Next up is the minor gripe with the album, even though Earths Cliff has its moments, with the extra layer of vocals and the added keywork and the drawn-out delivery, there is just something that didn’t quite click. And well, perhaps it just mirrors Green Lung’s The Ritual Tree a bit too much. But we can easily forget that fact when we get stomped by that next pummeling Deaths Of Despair track. The metal groove, slowly building, with another galloping rhythm, that powering through without looking back delivery, that gnarly voice and those percussion salvos, setting Deaths Of Despair up to become yet another anthemic Hästspark song. Those effect touches along the way, and then the break, clean vocals leading you along the hallway towards… A grandiose and explosive ending! But not of the album, cause we’ve only passed the halfway mark and next up is battleship and title track Ostiarius Inferni. This gatekeeper to hell, drags you along the abyss, lets the guitar fan the flames, while the charred vocals serve as Charon to take you to the other side. Where an Ouroboros styled riff awaits to keep repeating till there is no tail left to bite. They end their wild Ostiarius Inferni album with another break your neck headbanging, powerful and galloping metal track called Memento Mori. And you will remember that one and the entire album for a long time to come. Hästspark, it’s the sound of your horses, kicking down the door and burling in your face.
(Written by JK)
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