Thy Horrendous Yearning

Thy Horrendous Yearning is the closest to "business as usual" for Ride for Revenge (RfR). We have the short ambient-ish intro track; a 14-minute black/doom track with lots of feedback; some occult lyrics about the Devil, sex, and devilish sex; and a final doom metal centerpiece where the bass takes the lead. None of them are exceptionally interesting or do anything far from what RfR had on previous releases. "Soul Abortion" sounds very similar to "Frozen" and "Victorious" from the drone-ish Enter the Gauntlet LP, and "Secrets of Cryptic Metal" is a less-impressive version of the creeping dread on Wisdom of the Few. Neither of these tracks are straight-up bad - but in a discography as gigantic as RfR's (especially if you count all the splits and EPs), they don't stand out either, which is damnation in itself for a band that excels at being weird.

Two tracks are on-par with RfR's black/doom quality assurance: "Sexual Rhythm of Death" and "The Reversed Cross". Both of these take the comparatively conventional approach on previous LP Ageless Powers Arise but include synthesizers by way of unsettling oscillations. Like "Erotic Needs in the Emotional Void" from the debut LP The King of Snakes, these impress a ritualistic feeling, but the kind of ritual you don't actually want to stumble upon (and if you do, it's because they're waiting for you). The synths create an awesome Bolero effect as overlaid with guitars, crashing drums, chunky bass, and Harald Mentor's patented sprechgesang growl.

However, these tracks sandwich what is currently the worst song in RfR's history. The title track is a two-minute romp of Norwegian black metal in the vein of Ildjarn. It's punky as hell, lo-fi as shit, and sounds awful. It's so wildly different in fidelity from the rest of the LP that upon first listen, I thought I had a bad rip. Those two minutes kneecap the rest of the LP's flow, and while you can just skip it, the fact that needs to be said is demonstrative of low quality. Perhaps RfR could do great at a black/punk tribute, but this isn't the track - and it wasn't the LP. It also follows the second-weakest track on the album ("Devil's Star on the Rise"); despite being the second-shortest track on Thy Horrendous Yearning (not including the intro), it somehow manages to sound the most like filler.

Thy Horrendous Yearning is not outright bad, but the lack of outright good makes it the least-recommended RfR full-length album. Luckily, it's only a brief misstep, as follow-up Sinking the Song is one of the band's best releases.