Rhino - Dead Throne Monarch (2008)

 Rhino, the band that was to become Horn of the Rhino later, is one of the last trully original and unique bands in the metal scene nowadays. The trio from Bilbao has released 4 full lenght albums, 2 under the Rhino moniker and 2 under their new name. "Dead Throne Monarch" is their second album and in my humble opinion their best. What they managed to achieve in these 70 minutes is beyond every imagination and surely no one could expect such a great outcome from those inconspicuous basque guys.
 Rhino's music is a weird yet successful blend of doom, ( mannish doom not the so called depressive, suicidal or whatever kind of crap they want to call it -doom ) death, thrash, sludge and grunge(!) Many might be somewhat suspicious about how this could work out. There are slow passages of majestic doom, especially on the uber-epic "Funebre", faster parts throughout many songs, like "Horned Crown", or "Reins of the Warlord", where you can clearly detect death/ thrash influences. That type of influence is obvious mainly on the vocals which remind me Obituary's  John Tardy. But the vocals aren't just influenced by that type of "singing". The gifted vocalist handles perfectly his voice and provides us with some clean, grungy vocals in the vein of Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam ( especially in "Wendigo" ). In other cases, the vocalist turns into a solitary mourner and his Voice comes right from the depths of his heart soaked in pain but filled with passion ( in "Funebre" ) That's the unexpected aspect of this album and of course its highlight.
 Apart from the splendid vocal perfomance, the overall musicianship is pretty solid and there's a lot of groove present in almost every single track. Noticeable is the extremely heavy riffing in "Earth Reclaims.." and of course the jazzy saxophone(!) solo in"Promise of Storm".  Everything shines in this record even the artwork which is the thing I admired at first.
 So, I'd recommend this masterpiece of doom to everyone who loves diversity and would like to experience something new and original.

 Standout tracks: "Reins of the Warlord", "Earth Reclaims the Usurper",  "Funebre", "Wendigo", "Promise of Storm".
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