I won’t get into the details of how I came to construct one of my favorite meals, but I will describe it to
you. I take a baked potato, cut it open, season it a bit, and proceed to pile all the other stuff I cooked on
top of it. And I mean all. Sides? Nope, it’s all on the potato. Why am I telling you about this? Because I
love metaphors and I think my monstrous potato meal describes Monoceros, the newest album from
Norwegian grind punk band, Forcefed Horsehead perfectly.
Like the potato, the monikers of grind and punk, are only the base layer of what this band offers on this
album. Forcefed Horsehead piles many other sonic layers on top of their sound. You can hear everything
from old school death metal, hardcore, black metal, doom, and progressive metal. Even if I put aside
how great the album sounds, I was really impressed with how well they integrated all of those sounds.
You would think that a band trying to cram all of those genres into one sound would sound disjointed or
chaotic (not the good kind of chaotic). Forcefed Horsehead have achieved complete cohesion on
Monoceros.
Another aspect of any album that I tend to listen for is track order. I feel like it isn’t talked about enough
outside of the studio, but track order matters a great deal when it comes to an album. There needs to
be flow, especially when you’re sound is as diverse as Forcefed Horsehead. Monoceros has, in my
opinion, a perfect track order, it plays like a concert set list. They take you on a journey of their sound
from beginning to end.
Monoceros by Forcefed Horsehead is another album that you can throw right into the unique pile. I
can’t say I have heard any other band that is exactly like them. All of their components are familiar, but
the whole sounds new and refreshing to me. This is a band that could fit on just about any metal tour
because there is something in their sound for everyone to latch onto. Monoceros is a stacked baked
potato I will dig into often.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
Review By: Dan Perretta
