BARBARIAN PHROPHECIES 5^th full length album Horizon is a ferociously heavy whirlpool of Melodic Death and Black Metal, with elements of Thrash and Groove to give it enough exciting variation to stick with you for a long time. This album has great song writing and production in spades, and it's the product of a band who has been at it for two decades, releasing music regularly throughout, and this dedication and proficiency comes through clearly in the music. The songs feel free flowing, dancing through genre and feeling yet in a concise and well-structured manner, there is a lot of care and dedication on show from the band in all aspects of the creation of this album, look no further than the comments of the "Alpha" music video where the band have replied to each and every comment offering thanks for the support, I love it.

The album starts off incredibly strong with "Alpha," a prog Death metal track that hits like an uppercut and never lets up. A spacey atmospheric builder begins the track, which is soon joined by a nice, reverbed synth movement to create a sci-fi reminiscent intro. Thumping drums, the triggered kick standing tall in the mix, are joined by a Death Metal guitar riff that bursts the atmospheric bubble. The coarse vocals, soaked with aggression and without restraint rock the music with an assaulting nature, the vocalist always goes full attack, and she delivers a wonderful performance. Grand, epic sweeping riffs add progressive and notes of Black Metal whilst the drums maintain a tight four to the floor beat with alternating straight double time and swung kicks that really get the headbanging going.

"Supreme Vampire" is a rerecorded song from their discography that approaches heaviness with a more chaotic sense of urgency. Opening with wailing screams over a "Painkiller" like intro and proceeding to Hardcore drumbeats and dancing riffs. The half time blast beat builds up the section of full time blast we hear later to increase the sense of urgency this song conveys. There's a crazy section of slower double bass that fills out the beat and another great sweeping riff that I wish was way longer, the grandiose vibe nicely contrasts the punky rest of the track for a hard-hitting break.

"Ubermensch" has a sobering opening in comparison to the other tracks, a half minute of noodling guitars and background noise, this is just a precursor to a high intensity, hard hitting penultimate track. Blast beats, chugging guitars and more ferocious vocals make up the most diverse track in terms of genre hopping. The chugs of guitars with bursts of double pedal is pure Tech Death, and the screams in tandem with quick blast beats bring in the Blackened. Sections where the opening guitar melody is reintroduced to a groovy, light drumbeat feels straight out of a 70's prog album and everything works very nicely together to create a fantastic song thanks to the song writing.

Horizon oozes talent from every track, the exciting genre blend and all out heaviness is nothing short of brilliant and each track is its own unique being that culminate in a singular amazing album. The mix and production are of great quality; the punchiness of the bass drum still echoes through my head. Guitar work is fantastic, pumping the album with riffs and melodies and the vocal performance always hits the constant aggression and energy.