Huron – Mary Celeste

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English extreme southern metal purveyors Huron continue their Pantera worship with a second album in three years. The Pantera era we’re talking about here is the Far Beyond Driven and The Great Southern Trendkill time, when Pantera were probably at their heaviest and most extreme. Huron are still able to conjure that aggression on Mary Celeste, and the first three tracks are the kind of all-out thrashy anger Pantera were known for in the middle of their career. But they’ve upped the ante compared to debut Cheyne Stoking, and this improvement coincides with vocal deliveries which don’t sound entirely like Philip Anselmo. Take the mid-album one-two-three Blood In Blood Out, All My Gods and Serpentswine. All three feature some of the heaviest, sludgiest riffs of the disc and the variation in the vocals adds an interesting flavour which their direct Pantera-influenced stuff sometimes lacks. And it has to be said that the album’s best track, just as with Cheyne Stoking, is the soft one. Eternal Sea Pt.1 is simply outstanding, recalling Corey Taylor’s acoustic material. The disc slips back into the Pantera style again for the closing three tracks, including a heavy counterpart to the acoustic album highlight earlier, Eternal Sea Pt.2. Huron are still pulling off the southern thrash-sludge thing very well, and Mary Celeste is just as enjoyable as Cheyne Stoking, but if they don’t take the next logical progression away from the Pantera sound, whatever that may be, soon, metal fans will waste no time at all in condemning them to the rank of Pantera tribute band. There are steps in the right direction here, so now the balance needs to shift for album number three so that the non-Pantera tracks are in the majority.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Albums, Heavy Metal (Extreme Vocals), Quick.Play Reviews, Sludge, Huron