HORNDAL
Conceptual stoner thrashers forge a new, hometown tale
PROSTHETIC
Lake Drinker
Horndal’s 2019, debut, Remains, was a concept album about a small town – also called Horndal – recounting how its steel mill closing effectively wiped the place off the map. Lake Drinker revisits the same theme, claiming that corporations are defiling Horndal’s ruins with deforestation and drought. Sadly, although this successor is a hefty slab of stoner thrash, the music isn’t quite as engaging as its narrative. This is sludge adherent to the High On Fire school of dirt-under-your-nails relentlessness. The snare grooves are hyper-heavy and the chord-driven riffs are deliciously murky, but its increased length doesn’t leave you yearning for more. It’s an expansion, sure, but all it’s added is more of the same ideas.