Hesperian Death Horse (Croatia): “Živ”

The band I am going to write about is a very special one for their almost unique genre. Hesperian Death Horse were formed in Zagreb, Croatia, in 2012; their recently released second album Živ is a manifesto of their musical programme: avant-garde black/sludge/post-metal  as the band likes to define itself. The sound is actually very original and includes elements typical of all the genres mentioned in the definition; it is not a messy hotchpotch, but a well balanced conflation full of anguish and pain. Of course when bands take elements from such disparate genres, they always do so at the cost of linearity and fluidity. Hesperian Death Horse are not an exception and sometimes listening to their music might be demanding.

According to the information at my disposal, Hesperian Death Horse is a narrator of psychedelic, nihilistic poetry that sings a saga of the birth, life and death of every being, each stage envisioned as a separate album forming a trilogy, after which, the band will have concluded the saga and will not create any further music. The saga will be told in the order of death, life and birth. Death was the theme of the first album Mrtav (Croatian for the word ‘Dead’), released in 2013. Life is the theme of the second album Živ (Croatian for the word ‘Alive’). Rodjen (Croatian for the word ‘Born’), will see the light of day in late 2020.
 
Text by Herjann
herjann@unholyblackmetal.com