Rhino is a band from Spain that has clearly worshipped at the dark feet of history's greatest Metal acts. It's comforting to know that American and British teenagers aren't the only ones on the planet determined to piss off their parents by rocking out to Black Metal... Now Spanish parents can wring their hands over the demise of Spanish youth, to the sound of a genuine Spanish Metal band. There are many variations on Black Metal, and Dead Throne Monarch can't seem to make up its mind on where it falls. There are some serious throwback tunes on the record, reminiscent of '80s bands like Ratt and Poison that drew heavily on short, raunchy, distorted guitar-driven anthems, interspersed with steel-string ballads.
The confusion comes in when one listens to songs like "Pale Horses Coming" or "Wolf Among Black Sheep," where Rhino is trying to channel Pantera and become a brooding force of darkness, befitting lead singer Javier Galvez's grating, baritone-rumble, vocal style. This would be great if it worked (what fan wouldn't be happy to see a new Pantera record?), but Rhino just doesn't have the technical chops to pull off anything that virtuosic. On the comparison to Nine Inch Nails, Dead Throne Monarch features some good production that holds up when you dial the volume to speaker-busting heights, but everything sounds dull and lifeless compared to Reznor's crisp, biting, studio production. This record sounds muddy and engineered too much toward the low end of the spectrum.
Fundamentally, this is amateur work. There's great homage here, but Metalheads are very discerning. Contrary to public perception (informed by radio and Top 40 lists), Metal output worldwide is incredibly strong, buoyed by independent distribution and hard-working touring bands. Rhino may end up being a big splash on the Continent, but the U.S. and U.K. markets will likely judge Dead Throne Monarch as a derivative and diluted homily to bands long gone, but not forgotten. I plunked in my copy of Pantera's 1994 album "Far Beyond Driven," after spending some time with Dead Throne Monarch, and immediately felt my teeth gritting and hair standing up on the back of my neck. Rhino isn't bad, but it completely fails that kind of visceral test, which is the ultimate measure of any serious Metal band.
