PARABELLUM - Behold A Pale Horse (CD)

With "Behold A Pale Horse”, California’s young thrash metal act Parabellum take a massive step forward, pushing their sound into darker, heavier and more apocalyptic territory. Following their acclaimed debut “The Iron Curtain", the band return with an album that feels like both a prophecy and a confession - an unfiltered reflection of a world collapsing under its own weight.

Written between 2023 and 2024, "Behold A Pale Horse” captures the band in full evolution. Formed in 2021 while still in high school, Parabellum - Emre Aube (vocals, guitar), Davy Galileo (lead guitar, vocals), Kyle O’Connor (bass) and Jacey Knecht (drums) - have grown from teenage prodigies into a fully realized force within modern thrash. Their sound, once raw and explosive, now blends precision, atmosphere and conviction in equal measure.
The album’s title comes from the Book of Revelation, symbolizing the arrival of Death after conquest, war and famine - a metaphor that runs through every song. “Where ‘The Iron Curtain’ was about waking people up,” says frontman Emre Aube, “this record is about what comes after - the collapse, the reckoning, the cost of looking away.”

Each track explores a different face of destruction and decay, from the manipulation of “I Am the Mockingbird” and the spiritual conflict of “Sanctification and Heresy” to the introspection of “Sic Vita Est” and the prophetic rage of “7 Years”. The record closes with an explosive tribute to their roots - a cover of Sepultura’s “Territory” - and the venomous final statement “Vexatious”.
Musically, "Behold A Pale Horse” is as aggressive as it is layered. It merges the speed and precision of Bay Area thrash with the crushing weight of modern metal and the emotional depth of a band unafraid to expose its wounds. The guitars of Aube and Galileo carve through the mix with both violence and melody while Knecht’s drumming and O’Connor’s bass lock in with relentless drive. The result is an album that flows like a single, massive composition - dynamic and uncompromising.

“Our goal wasn’t just to write fast riffs and heavy songs,” explains guitarist Davy Galileo, “it was to create an atmosphere that pulls you in from the first note and doesn’t let go until the end”.
Produced, mixed and mastered by Tom Jimenez at Audio Edge Recordings in Sacramento, the album captures Parabellum’s live energy in full force. The production remains deliberately raw, giving every note and lyric the urgency of a warning siren. “We wanted every track to feel alive - honest, dangerous and real” says the band.
Lyrically, "Behold A Pale Horse” speaks to collapse - not just societal but moral and spiritual. It’s a meditation on humanity’s self-destruction on how faith, power and greed intertwine until they consume everything. “We’re not writing fiction,” adds Aube. “We’re writing about the world we’re living in.”

The album artwork, created by Ken Knecht, reflects that vision perfectly - depicting a modern Horseman of Death riding through a ruined world, carrying the message that no one escapes consequence."Behold A Pale Horse” isn’t just a metal record; it’s an experience told through thrash - intense, emotional and unrelenting. It’s the sound of Parabellum growing up without losing their fire, balancing precision with chaos, melody with devastation.

If “The Iron Curtain" was the awakening, "Behold A Pale Horse” is the aftermath - a full-scale reckoning that cements Parabellum as one of the most promising names in the new generation of American thrash metal.

MARKETING & PROMOTION / SELLING POINTS

- Second full-length album by thrashers PARABELLUM
- For fans of Metallica, Slayer, Sepultura, Testament, Exodus