Release Date June 5th, 2026
Format Digital/LP/CD
Genre Pagan Black Metal
Origin Germany
Horn began in Paderborn in 2002, formed around Nerrath’s writing, vocals and multi instrumental work, with additional musicians appearing on releases and a live formation supporting concerts. The band emerged from German pagan black metal with nature, folklore and seasonal imagery at its core, then widened its historical range through albums such as “Konflikt”, “Feldpost”, “Turm Am Hang”, “Mohngang”, “Verzet” and “Daudswiärk”. War correspondence, rural traditions, regional dialects, mortality and European conflict became recurring material, giving Horn a distinct place among bands that use history as more than decoration. Early albums placed forests, weather and solitude beside melodic black metal, whereas later releases turned toward soldiers, disease, regional memory and the lives of ordinary people caught inside violent eras.
“Apokalyps 1618” is the eleventh studio album from Horn, issued through a partnership with Northern Silence Productions in digital, vinyl and CD editions. Eight songs are building a triumphant pagan black metal album around the opening of the Thirty Years’ War, the Third Defenestration of Prague, medieval folklore and tales preserved by the Brothers Grimm. The multilingual lyrics move through German, Swedish, Norwegian and English, adding regional character and different rhythmic shapes to the vocal lines. Musically, Horn combine epic melody, dissonant guitar patterns, severe black metal passages, choral voices, folk shaped phrases and doom laden finality.
The production is expansive and detailed. Guitars arrive in layered ranks, drums strike with martial authority, bass deepens the melodic movement, and the vocal arrangements range from rasped attack to solemn chanting and dark singing. Acoustic textures and unusual vocal turns appear as part of the composition, never as ornaments pinned onto black metal riffs. The guest appearances add further colour without turning the album into a parade of names. “Apokalyps 1618”, “Barhout” and “At Our Bleakest” mark three ends of the album’s range, from battlefield grandeur through strange vocal construction to a dark gothic descent.
Elsewhere, melody rises from dissonance in broad, mournful lines, and then collapses into colder passages where the harmony refuses resolution. The pacing has patience, with long sections allowed to gather scale before the next change arrives. Each return of a melody arrives altered by rhythm, harmony or voice, so the album advances through escalation and transformation. Its finest moments fuse hymnal grandeur with black metal fury, producing music that sounds ancient, immediate and victorious. The sequence remains unified by its historical atmosphere, disciplined writing and an imposing melodic core.
The Bosch inspired artwork completes the vision through crowded medieval terror, religious dread and human ruin. This is Horn at full scale, majestic, savage and richly arranged, with every section feeding the same apocalyptic sweep. The melodies rise above the violence, the dissonance denies comfort, and the final stretch leaves the album suspended over a Europe entering catastrophe. “Apokalyps 1618” is a towering release, assembled with imagination, discipline and absolute authority. It belongs among Horn’s finest albums and among the major pagan black metal releases of 2026.
|9.3
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