Limited Indeed

When your musical mission is to bottle the sounds of the past with the justification that hard rock is hard rock, has been for 50 years, and will be for another 50 years, then expectations for a new single are staid if not low. Coming off the heels of their 2013 LP, Time Warriors, Swedish rockers Horisont have released a 7″ (also available digitally), Break the Limit. The five-piece is currently in the studio recording its fourth album, so this record is a morsel to hold fans over. This snack consists of two tracks: the title track and “Yellow Blues.” While “Break the Limit” reflects everything fans have come to expect from Horisont, “Yellow Blues” appears to hint at a new direction.

“Break the Limit” starts with some tasty full-band hits-slash-drum solos before singer Axel comes in with his high-pitched vibrato that lives on the edge of a scream, until such time as it does indeed scream. English is likely the band’s second language, which would excuse the meaningless and dull lyrics. Lines like “The time is right to feel the moment” and “I feel a change I can’t surrender, this is the way I’m stopping it now” feel Magnet-Poetry-borne. True to their mission, though, Horisont’s sound is authentically vintage with guitar and drum sounds ripped from the early ’70s.

“Yellow Blues,” however, starts with a prog-like synth riff and some less-than-typical chords. The guitar line that follows is doom-ish, which is creative once you realize the song has a standard 12-bar blues structure. The drums rollick along masterfully, and a minute in you are optimistic that this song will be an instrumental. When Axel comes in 20 seconds later, the vocals are out of place, and something nearly original becomes anachronistic once again. Hopefully, as Horisont composes their next album, they will focus on the moments on this 7″ that went right and build on them.