Review: “Walxaz” by Neverlight Horizon

Belgium is famous for a lot of things but after you’ve eaten the chocolate, waffles and fries then sampled the beer, we need some good old fashioned Death Metal. Hailing from the region are band who have bulled and beaten us many times since they formed in 1999 are Neverlight Horizon, an outfit who currently feature in their ranks members and former members of such lesser lights of heaven as Slaughtery, Bursting and Excavated. Having been absent without leave since 2016’s third album “Dead God Effigies” appeared via French label Great Dane Record we had feared them lost without a trace but the masters of Death, Blood and Horror themes had other ideas. They’ve recruited a new vocalist in Aubry André, no doubt helped by guitarist Xavier Toulmonde’s connections to Excavated and so unleash “Walxaz” (which translates as “Wallonia“), a collection of old and scary legends that were once told in the region they actually live in…

A Groove Death classic from the region that has given us bands like Mordkaul, the opening cut is a tale of an evil creature with hooks instead of hands for which André takes on the role of the protagonist in the first person. A menacing and sinister opening cut “The One With The Hooks” is a real tone setter, proving that the band have lost none of their killer instinct despite their time away. Drummer Julien Nicolet delivers an artillery shelling performance from behind the kit, the blood and thunder he provides driving the band forward with style and grace for a cut that has an air of familiarity about it. Some lethal squeals from the guitars give “Bellem” a few moments that feel like screams as it thunders through, another juggernaut of a genre tour de force. There may be no Pantera influence but the swagger of this one in the guitar department is certainly reminiscent of the Texas natives at their heaviest even if it is far more technical, the low level solo being far from the virtuoso moment that you might have anticipated. A tale of a cave within which was a gate to Hell, “Among The Caves” finds Nicolet given license to blast and he does so with in tasteful fashion as the band give us something with a timeless quality; a cut that could have appeared at any point in the past 30 odd years and not seemed out of place. The guitars are sumptuous, the vocals searing and venomous and that continues into “Mist and Darkness” as if it were a conjoined twin. Another masterfully constructed piece of Groove Death, this one ploughs a furrow through the ear drum to the cerebral cortex with consummate ease. Charging forward at the tempo of the damned with the desire to snap your neck, Neverlight Horizon have made a triumphant return… [8/10]

Track Listing

1. The One With The Hooks
2. Bellem
3. Among The Caves
4. Mist and Darkness

“Walxaz” by Neverlight Horizon was released on 1st December 2023 and is available over at bandcamp.