Hornets of the Pogrom

Following a six year gap since their last full length album, Arghoslent's "Hornets of the Pogrom" shows why patience is a virtue. While the album is certainly full of its imperfections, it still serves as a fair staple for the subgenre in its preferable form. Arghoslent has turned out to be quite controversial due to their lyrical content, but they do certainly have tremendous talent found through impressive instrumentation and compelling and catchy melodies. While I myself can look past the offensive nature of the lyrics, I understand that many other people feel differently. I also don't feel very qualified to talk about the racial implications in the lyrics and so this review will focus much more on the music itself.

As if shout out of a cannon from hell, the album kicks off with easily its best song, "In Coffles They Were Led". From its varying intensity to its crash heavy drumming, the opening track to hornets of the pogram is at times emotional, groovy, and disgusting. Coffles lays a blueprint for the album in the remaining 38 minutes, showing that from start to finish, the album is set to be a glorified and intense riff compilation. Unfortunately, the novelty of relentless riffs wears its welcome within just a few tracks as riffs began to blend in with others on the album and became more of a bore than a selling point. That being said, there are still of course a good bit of high notes in the riff department found throughout the album. My personal favorite would probably have to be the opening riff to "Manacled Freightage", which sets a frightening seen that feels like having a schizophrenic breakdown at a carnival.

Overall the relentless melodies found in the countless riffs serve to give the listener a very adventurous atmosphere, making it feel like you're the center of some grand plot, or the main character in an rpg. While this can be an enjoyable thing, I sometimes found myself listening to these heroic and triumphant sounding riffs and feeling an instant comparison to Alestorm, among other cheesy power metal bands. Moments like this weren't necessarily common, but they felt hard to ignore at several points, such as most of the second half of "Manacled Freightage". This unfortunate comparison also rears its head quite strongly on "Oracle of the Malefic Rhizome", which for almost its entirety made me think of that insufferably annoying and cheesy pirate rock. For what it's worth, however, both instances sounded like a more evolved and interesting Alestorm rather than the terrible hipster feeling the actual band produces.

While I did find myself occasionally bored from the persistent hammer on-pull off riffs, my interest was peaked again in the title track, the instrumental "Hornets of the Pogrom". Built off of countless riff variations, from tremolos to low grooves to galloping riffs, the penultimate track is a wild ride from start to finish that is far from one note. Most interestingly, the song has three very distinct solos in it, firstly a sorrowful mid-paced solo, soon to be followed by two other solos that would increase in intensity. The second solo took the first and built on speed and intensity, only for the closing solo to add on with these howling squeals.

Though it may seem minor, my biggest disapointment with this album was the use of pinch harmonics, particularly in "Oracle of the Maelfic Rhizome" and "The Grenadier". I have always been a fan of using pinch harmonics sparingly on an album, with their use coming as some bad ass aspect of whatever lucky track(s) they end up on within the album. Both of these tracks however, despite using pinch harmonics in one of their respective riffs, use it in a rather empty way that was emotionless and made the harmonics themselves feel rather cheap, as if they were some small part of the riff rather than a focus. Again, as small as it may seem, I have a strong desire for pinch harmonics to be used in a way that they feel like the most important part of the song, like on Dehumanized's "Doomed to Die", or Katelepsy's "Cold Flesh Citadel".

In spite of my impatience with the riffs, it's hard to say that the melodic and often melancholic solos on this album are anything aside from perfect. These solos do just about everything that you would want out of a solo from this subgenre, and perfectly compliment the songs that they reside in. They all manage to give these emotional breaks to the ongoing chaos with slower paced instrumentation just to remind you of the diversity within the album. In particular, the solo toward the end of "The Nubian Archer" perfectly caps off one of the best and certainly what I found to be the most emotional song of the album. The guitar tone, while not being as intense as you may expect from a band with Arghoslent's reputation, works extremely well on the solos, while not actually detracting from the impact of the main riffs from song to song.

With the guitars finally out of the way, it would feel unfair not to mention the vocals any longer. The Genocider produced some otherworldy vocals on this record, being both primal in his fierce and vicious presentation, but also maintaining a surprising amount of clarity in his lyrical delivery, especially on "Swill of the Knaves". He is able to maintain one of the more impressively strained and gravelly vocal performances I've heard, and still his vocal projection is top notch. While many may focus on the countless riffs of the album and point to the guitars as the best part of the record, it would be a shame not to account for this voracious performance. Additionally, while the guitars do tend to be at least a little inconsistent on this album, notably with what I mentioned earlier about "Oracle of the Malefic Rhizome", The Genocider continues his impressive performance on each and every track. Aside from his consistency from track to track, he also showed off his very impressive mid growl, particularly around three and a half minutes into "Swill of the Knaves".

Past the guitars and vocals is finally where the album can feel a little tired, though I wouldn't say that the bass and drums were outright bad. The bass was a little peculiar in that, after being well audible as a supplementary part of the first half of the album, as well as having its own brief moment of glory in the beginning of "Swill of the Knaves", it seemed to fade into obscurity as the album passed the midway point. Normally, this would bother me more, but the album does a good job between guitars and vocals alone that I don't find myself missing some sort of shining harmony between all of the instrumental parts of the album, and so it feels acceptable because of course the bass isn't a huge focus of this album in particular. My main problem with the bass actually comes with its tone, which is mostly clean yet a little heavy, reminding me of various punk bands. I think that keeping the tone completely wholesome and clear would probably have sounded better, though again the bass was in no means "bad".

The drums were certainly unique, with many different fills throughout the album, as well as a shocking usage of the crash on the kit. You can really hear the passion in Alienchrist's performance on the kit, as he jumps from rhythm to rhythm, relentlessly pounding away. His drumming really comes to a head in the aforementioned track, "The Nubian Archer", where he is able to tirelessly match the intensity or lack their of. When he isn't blasting away, he delivers a very emotional and cymbal heavy line with tom fills in between on the tracks slow sections. Additionally, I noticed that Alienchrist tried to step away from the tried and true method of just non-stop blast beats, as it would seem each blast beat had some sort of painstakingly placed fill every few measures or so. All that being said however, the drums are incredibly overshadowed by the guitarists and vocalist, and while the kit is more of a secondary thought on this album, it could easily be the main selling point on a less fruitful record.

The production on the album really lends a hand in spotlighting all the different stars on the LP. Specifically, while a more poorly balanced album probably would've given The Genocider more of a back-seat role, the production on this album leaves much more room between the guitars and vocals in particular, though the mix also doesn't overly drown out other parts of the songs, especially in the first half of the album. A good mix like this really helps bring the whole thing together, and also gives each band member a more fulfilled purpose.

Overall, despite its challenges, Arghoslent's "Hornets of the Pogrom" is a thought provoking and diverse album that mixes aggressive exuberance with what at times feels absolutely desolate and sorrowful. Multiple talented musicians came together and gave extremely professional performances that gelled and flowed together for almost the entirety of the album's 42 minute run. Had Oracle been left out of the album all together, I most definitely would of thought even higher of the album than I already do.

Since we live in sensitive times (note that I don't say it as a bad thing), I fear that every reviewer tackling Arghoslent for the first time has to make his views clear before even starting to talk about the music. The huge elephant in the room, not too well hidden either, is always lurking when one analyzes something made by this peculiar band, so... no, I'm not racist, by any manner of means. But you see, extreme metal music is not exactly the place I look where I want to find something going arm in arm with my personal beliefs (I mean, I'm a Catholic...). Some bands just walk the thin line in your head, where you're not sure if you should boycott them in every way (and possibly start collecting some rotten vegetables to throw at them next time they're playing near your city) or just put your personal beliefs and thoughts on standby for an hour and let the music do the talking. Another important note: I usually have no problems at discerning the art from the artist, but that doesn't mean that it's not gonna be a problem for anyone else, so I'm not judging you in the slightest, if you can't. The best thing about living in a free world is that every band can be as bigot and offensive as they want, everyone has the right to either like them or to say that they're a bunch of retrogrades and to ignore their music and so forth. The issue I usually see is that, by putting your veto on something before even trying it, you may potentially miss out on something extraordinary.

But Arghoslent? No, you're not missing out on anything.

Okay, maybe not anything, considering that a lot of people before me claimed the exact opposite. We all know what you have already read about Arghoslent: I can almost hear the collective, unison voices of almost everyone before me as they insist on how, true, the band carries forward a despicable message, but their traditional metal inspired riffs are so delicious that everything is outweighed and pardoned. And herein lies my main gripe, already. Look, I idolatrize riffs in my metal just as much as the average user of this site. I've always believed that the power of the Almighty Riff could singlehandedly propel my favourite metal albums to Olympus. But now I stand corrected. For how well-written a riff is, it will mean nothing if the conditions surrounding it doesn't allow it to express its potential. And while most Arghoslent riffs are technically good (but, again, not much to salivate about), they just end up being painfully inoffensive. Neutered, if you want. I can't even fathom how they managed to keep conveying this exact same feeling for three albums straight... it's admirable, I guess?

Arghoslent really made the 'thin line' dilemma easier for me: I don't agree with their beliefs and I couldn't care less about their music. I can appear overly critical of this band because the premises were all good, and, as I said before, despite strongly disagreeing with their message, I saw them as something vaguely immoral and exciting to like. So, when I first exposed myself to their music, the disappointment was inevitable. Sure, my expectations had subconsciously raised all the way to the moon because of that 90% average, still, regardless of that, I can't help but feel that something doesn't exactly work. Seriously, I can't think of a single universe in which the main riff of 'Manacled Freightage' might fit in the context of a metal song, and if you’re wondering, no, I don’t mean it as a compliment. It unsettlingly sounds like circus music or something akin.

Given how I found Arghoslent working best during their fastest moments, with regards to their first two albums, I was surprised that my favourite cuts off Hornets of the Pogrom were the slower parts. 'Swill of the Knaves' was probably the best song here because of its repeated tempo changes, and yet it contains a pretty useless faster outro which unnecessarily prolongs it; what's nothing more than a trifle here, becomes a huge issue in tracks like 'The Nubian Archer', where a fairly nice little melodic bridge is sandwiched between two pretty repetitive fast sections, and it basically feels like a perfectly fine 4-minutes song pointlessly stretched until it reached 6 and a half. The songwriting choices end up being consistently puzzling, and the second half of the album hosts more pieces put together rather clumsily, like 'The Grenadier', a severe case of repetitiveness during 5 and a half minutes which result totally empty at the end of the day, or 'Oracle of the Malefic Rhizome' which tries to pull off a 'The Purging Fires of War'-like wannabe epic, but wastes the best riff on the album on a first minute that's totally disconnected from the rest of the song. The instrumental title-track is... I don't know, it was there, I guess?

And yet, I wasn't able to pinpoint exactly what didn't work for me, for a while. 'Swill of the Knaves', 'In Coffles They Were Led' and, awkward verse riff aside, 'Manacled Freightage' could still be killer songs, and the only ones I occasionally return to, yet there was still something not fully convincing me...

...before I finally had the epiphany I needed: these songs all follow the same structure, and that structure itself is flawed from the start because, well, there are close to zero guitar solos. You may argue that a band focusing so much on riffs doesn't need to do such a conformist thing and include a lead spot for the guitars in every song, but at these ears, the problem remains. Not the absence itself, but the fact that, often, you'll find yourself hearing a nice buildup, legitimately eager for a solo that won't happen, and what you'll get is having the bridge (which doesn't really conduct to anywhere, so we may as well give it a different name) repeated twice for no exact reason and the song ending shortly after that. Listen to what I deemed the best tracks on display here, and try convincing me that this isn't exactly what happens. You may argue then that I'm so narrow-minded to obstinately search for the 'classic' structure everywhere, and you know what? I can give you that. But for a band harking back to classic metal so much, and bear with me when I say that it's one of the most formulaic metal subgenres when it comes to song structures, it seems an odd choice to me, to say the least. 'Dog and Broom' is the shortest and most conventionally constructed song, and despite not being the best one, it sounds more convincing because of this. The sum of all these parts just maimed my interest with Hornets of the Pogrom and Arghoslent altogether.

If nothing else, the album sounds good, and even the guitar tone finally packs some punch. The entrance of The Genocider marked some improvements with vocals as well, as they sound close to the deeper, guttural moments of the past, dropping those amateurish voice cracks that didn't feel so good, even if I still suspect that this vocal timbre wasn't the most apt one to begin with. The bass is prominent and the drums, although a bit short on fills, are fittingly aggressive and complementing the sound; so again, nothing wrong worth mentioning. The thing with Arghoslent is that their style is objectively tough to deconstruct. I've seen comparisons with the equally unspectacular House of Atreus, and if the aim of these two bands was to start a new subgenre, then I can safely say that a) it did not work and b) don't count me in if it'll do. And the objective difficulty of meshing different genres is an only partial alibi – The Lightbringer tried their hand at mixing black with power, even tougher if you ask me, and went through it triumphally. I don't know about you, but when I see bands like that pulling it off, I believe less in the impossible. Any two genres were already mixed together with flying colors by a band bestowed by the Gods at some time; if not, said band has yet to come. Arghoslent is not that band, in my humble opinion.

In a certain way, I admire how they had so much success. Music that's meant to be controversial usually doesn't get a lot of following outside of its targeted audience, but probably that's because I have NSBM in mind and that's ignored and bashed for multiple reasons, all of them good. Arghoslent are clearly competent musicians and better than average songwriters, once you get past the racism they're somewhat of decent lyricists, I'll give them even that. But I just couldn't like this nearly as much as I wanted. I'm mainly curious about how the world would react if they should keep their promise of releasing something else sooner or later, given that, if compared to 2008, the tolerance (for intolerants? Huh) bar is way lower now. They'd probably trigger a whole lot of bad advertisement and consequently get even more exposure. Their shock value factor would just be more efficient than ever. I wonder if they've already taken this into account...

I'm not gonna review the other two Arghoslent full-length albums, but for my money this is the best they have offered so far. Just figure out my opinion about those for yourself. I can't close by telling you to stay far away from this band, but given the times we live in, a bit of social distancing wouldn't hurt either.

I went through this band's discography chronologically. After hearing their first release, I wasn't too impressed. Regardless, I continued to their second album. They greatly improved here, with catchy riffs and awesome vocals. I listened to that album a lot, before finally deciding to check out their newest album, Hornets of the Pogrom. This was a great decision on my part.

Upon starting this album, I was immediately greeted with the awesome riffs Arghoslent are known for. I also noticed that they got a new vocalist. Although hesitant at first, I quickly realised how much of an improvement he added to the band. His vocals fit the war-centred style of death metal they write perfectly. Although a bit generic, there's not really a reason to change the vocal style here. They work well, and changing the formula is simply too risky.

Next, I noticed that the riffs on this album are much "Darker" sounding than their previous release in general. Probably because this album is much more focused on war. The riffs sound chaotic, and the vocals only add to the destructive atmosphere of a war. Even the cover art depicts an epic battle, which the music supports. Even though these riffs are heavier than their previous albums, these riffs are still very positive compared to other death metal bands. Especially during the track "The Nubian Archer", the riffs appear to be uplifting and emotional in a way. These riffs can still be compared to heavy and power metal.

The drums are typical of death metal. Nothing special or unique in them, yet they compliment the music perfectly. All of these instruments combined make a chaotic and war-like atmosphere, with some killer riffs. This band manages to make "melodic" death metal, while still retaining their death metal roots. This album can't even be compared to the Gothenberg scene, yet it's still extremely melodic.

I'm giving this album a 100, due to the unique and catchy style of riffing and the top-tier songwriting. This album is addictive, and upon discovering it I played it almost every single day. It tops their other albums in nearly every aspect, with crushing riffs and even better vocals. If you consider yourself a fan of death metal in any way, then you have no excuse not to give this album a listen.

This review was written originally for metalneverlies.webs.com

Somebody once told me that no one makes good Metal anymore, but Hornets of the Pogrom (2008) has to be my #1 argument against that. With their latest release, Arghoslent has earned the title of “Death Metal band with the Sickest Riffs... Ever!” When I heard this CD for the first time, I was a new fan of the band having never heard any of their earlier work. I felt horrible, not knowing of these talented musicians beforehand, but then I put this CD into my player and all feelings of anything were gone, instantly replaced by Headbanging and renewed love for Metal.

A lot of people don't give this band a chance because they deal with lyrical themes that aren't exactly friendly to everyone, that's a damn shame and I actually feel sorry for anyone who would put off listening to this amazing piece of metal because of the lyrical content. For one, it's Death Metal, you don't have to understand what's being said. Secondly, this album is so catchy and awesome that I could headbang to any lyrics Arghoslent feels like recording. Lastly, these aren't even bad lyrics, this band went about what they do pretty intelligently, it's nothing along the lines of “We're racist” or anything...

Anyway, that's enough of an introduction. This is the part of the review that I attempt to capture the goodness of this CD with words:

Put it in, the first song is “In Coffles They Were Led.” This is metal. This is the reason people celebrate Metal Day... If you could imagine the sound in your head, it would be awesome. You would hear killer riffs played back to back, sick drum work throughout the CD, but it's not your typical Death Metal drum work. It sounds like Thrash / Death metal drum work. It's fast, and it's heavy and I don't think I could ask for a better drummer on this album. The vocals are brutal, and powerful. They are also placed so well in the song that it just adds to the catchyness.

“Swills of the Knave” showcases the band's low end with some awesome bass lines and some more riffs that are so fitting, and I can hear the Black/Doom influence in them. “Manacled Freightage” is another amazing song that has more of an upbeat feel to it. This is one of the best songs that displays the band's ability to play catchy riffs inspired by classic Heavy Metal. The next track is more of the same, but different and fresh with a powerful, melodic guitar solo that makes me feel like I could be in the song. Track five is entitled “Dog and Broom,” and it's back to good ol' Death metal, but it's still catchy, and I still can't stop headbanging. And the drums never let up, it's amazing.

Yes, listening through the rest of the CD, one can tell that this isn't your typical Death metal. It's fresh, it's exciting, and it's catchy. There isn't one boring or dull part of this album. Arghoslent wraps this up with the epic title track “Hornets of the Pogrom” - an instrumental song, and “The Grenadier” - which is more of this band's catchy and headbangable riffs which you will love.

If someone tells you that nobody is out there making quality metal anymore, have them listen to some tracks from Hornets of the Pogrom (2008), a both enjoyable and memorable Death metal CD that every metalhead owes a listen to.

Author's Note: I will be the first to admit to you how wrong I was about the first Arghoslent album I reviewed, Incorrigible Bigotry. Yes, it had some good riffs, and yes, it was listenable, but further listens, after the hype wore off, revealed a band with no passion or anger or any other kind of emotion to their music. It sounded like music made by machines, and I'm sorry I ever endorsed such laughable, pathetic and contrived crap. Allow me to use this review as repentance for my mistakes.

People mystify me. I'm not only talking about the mainstream masses, who constantly eat up corporate marketing schemes like The Jonas Brothers and crappy movies like Underworld, but as soon as I start to appreciate the artistic value of some modern music, even the underground Metal scene surprises me with the puzzling praise of shitty, shitty bands like Biomechanical, Arsis and now Arghoslent. What do all of these bands have in common? Heinously dull, fraudulent and artificial music that tries to disguise itself by being fast and heavy and offensive for the dumbass kids who don't know any better. Ridiculous, monotonous crap for morons who only want faceless technicality and brutality out of their music, without any regard for atmosphere or creativity or anything, you know, interesting.

Now, granted, Arghoslent isn't quite as bad as those other two abominations, but their 2008 album Hornets of the Pogrom is still pretty wretched, and undeserving of any real praise. Aside from being a bunch of racist cock-knockers, they are also incredibly derivative songwriters, with most of the shit on this album sounding like a bad The Chasm ripoff, with melodies that recall Iron Maiden and sometimes even 80s Helloween. Arghoslent get a lot of praise for their riffs, which are notably classic metal inspired, with only one major difference: these riffs suck and will not evoke anything but a tired yawn. The band, again, plays through this stuff like machines, never trying to sound evil or twisted or anything that you would expect a band with racist lyrics to be in the first place.

Okay, okay, the riffs aren't that bad by themselves, but they're never played into the songs in any way that sounds interesting or catchy or headbangable, or anything that Metal should be. A riff is only as good as the song it's meshed into, after all. Hornets of the Pogrom is about as exciting as watching paint dry. This is so sterile and uninspiring that it might as well be fucking elevator music. Iced Earth have written more exciting stuff than this on their last couple of albums. Why don't people demand more from their music than this un-likable, un-memorable horseshit? Where is the love for music without plastic guitar tones and that doesn't try to sound heavier than it really is? If you want something with classic metal-inspired riffs, don't listen to this watered down garbage, JUST GO LISTEN TO ACTUAL CLASSIC METAL. IT DOESN'T SUCK LIKE THIS DOES. IT ACTUALLY HAS PRIDE AND A SENSE OF DIGNITY AND EVERYTHING THAT THIS ALBUM DOESN'T HAVE. It's common sense, people, holy shit. God, this is terrible.

I would say that the lyrics are deplorable, but they really aren't. Here, Arghoslent's lyrics are terrible and bland. I mean, just look at them. They're not even really lyrics, they're just sort of...sentences, broken up into stanzas. They aren't even really racist anymore, either, they're just historical anecdotes. The band doesn't even seem to be trying here. Look at this, from the first song: "Marooned at Sierra Leone/Galleons prepared for the ride loaded with the nation's raw source of labor/With not a courtesan in the swarthy bunch." I mean, what the hell? Couldn't you at least try harder to make your deplorable lyrics deplorable in the first place, you lazy bunch of fucks? This is an insult to my intelligence. It's like hearing about the big, mean dog at the corner of the street for weeks, only to finally go down and see that his teeth have all rotted out.

I'm done with this crap. Don't support this band, don't buy into their shit, and don't believe a word of the praise anyone says about this album. In fact, the next time you hear someone praising this, punch them in the face. Arghoslent have made some of the worst Death Metal I've heard since Decrepit Birth's last noodly pile of fecal matter, and I hope more metalheads will come to their senses and realize that this is nothing short of mediocre on all fronts. Avoid.

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com

Arghoslent finally puts out an album after the immense album of Incorrigible Bigotry. Arghoslent plays a heavy metal version of death metal, which is completely riff-tastic. They happened to lose their previous vocalist, whose vocal melodies were always just spot on. The losing of the vocalist and trying to live up to the hype of Incorrigible Bigotry was a huge task for Arghoslent, but they came through in a big way!

The album is just filled with heavy metal riffs and absolutely brilliant song writing. The lyrics in this album are the usual type, which I don’t pay attention to mainly because of their ideology. What makes this album so great is the riffing. How can a band come up with such great riffs all the time, then go about putting them together where every song flows perfectly? When you listen to an Arghoslent song, you cannot help but headbang. The riffs, the solos, the vocal melodies, everything are put together so incredible that it’s almost impossible not to headbang. One new part to Hornets of the Pogrom, which varies from Incorrigible Bigotry and Galloping Through the Battle Ruins, is the drumming. They use the old school version of blasting, which is like a fast thrash beat; this is timed perfectly and put brilliantly into the mix. Now onto the vocals, how does the new guy compare? Well, he takes a different approach, which is more gaseous and droning compared to the last guy; however, I find this a great addition, and his vocal melodies are spot on. While I can’t help but wonder how the old guy would have sounded, I am content with the way it sounds now.

This album is full of catchy heavy metal riffs, superb song writing, great vocals, and spot on drumming. This is death metal that is just plain awesome.

On a side note, the title track is one of the best death metal songs I’ve heard in a long time. It’s a brilliant piece of riffing, solos, and song writing. I think it’s probably the best Arghoslent song!

A little quick background on this band: Formed in 1990, they have been one of the leaders of underground melodic death metal for almost two decades now. They're signed to legendary metal label Drakkar Productions, home to other acts like Germany's Haggard and the (ridiculously named) Goatreich 666, who hail from Italy. After quite a few demo released in the early 1990's, Arghoslent put out their first album "Galloping Through the Battle Ruins" in 1998. Since then they have released a second full length "Incorrigible Bigotry" and now their third. A band hailing from Oakton in Fairfax County, Virginia, they are probably the best band from the Northern Virginia area and one of the few decent metal acts I can consider local. The other interesting fact regarding Arghoslent's modus operandi is their interesting interpretation of historical events (the band refers to themselves as "Totalitarian death metal"). Critics will call them blatant and unashamed racists, fans will say it's just how they view the past. Either way, you gain quite a reputation when you have song titles such as 'The Negress' and 'Flogging the Cargo.'

The wait for "Hornets of the Pogrom" was long, and it has easily been my most anticipated release of 2008. So how does the final product hold up?

In a word: Monstrously. This album is lightning fast, uncompromisingly pounding, and most important of all chock full of memorable riffs. Arghoslent has always stood out from the death metal crowd for their incredibly well written and free flowing songs, several of which are monumentally epic in sound. Continuing the tradition of their early demos, "Pogrom" only serves to further cement this band's reputation as one of the most original and talented playing metal today.

Lead guitarist Pogrom and his cohort Holocausto never once let up on the riffing, and from start the finish all 42 minutes of this album are a mind blowing showcase of guitar work inspired more by Manilla Road and Iron Maiden than Cannibal Corpse or Death. That has always been Arghoslent's key - Guitars inspired by pure heavy metal riffing, pushed harder and harder until they sound like nothing else you will listen to in death metal. The melodically stunning riffs are complimented by technically astounding solos on quite a few tracks, specifically 'Dog and Broom' and the title track. Dancing in and out of focus but never leaving prominence, the guitar playing on this album would be a landmark for death metal were it not for Arghoslent's previous two releases. As it is, they continue their distinct sound quite well.

On the rhythm front, there is not quite as much to be praised. The drums display just the right amount of technical flash while keeping the wild guitars in check. I'm not sure who even plays the drums, since former man-behind-the-skins Alienchrist AKA The Gulag is apparently no longer with the band. But whoever they have knows his job and performs it quite well. Likewise with the bass. I'm assuming one of the guitar players handles bass duties since there is no dedicated player listed. Arghoslent is a band about the guitars, however, and the other two instruments are happy to take a back seat to the insane string work.

Since 2002's "Incorrigible Bigotry" Arghoslent has apparently gotten a new vocalist. Former growler Gravedigger (Rumored to be Richard P. Mills, former vocalist for Grand Belial's Key before his 2006 death, but later denied by the band) has given his post up to The Genocider. He does a quality death growl that fits with the music of "Pogrom" just as well as on former records. According to an interview, he's quite the strange fellow as well (see link at bottom). Speaking of Grand Belial's Key, they were a black metal band also from Oakton, Virginia who like Arghoslent was criticized for their racist ideologies. One of Arghoslent's guitarists played with them, as did former drummer Alienchrist. They broke up with Mills' death in 2006.

It is a grand thing to have bands like Arghoslent still playing original and exciting death metal in an age where trendy bands like Suicide Silence dominate the scene. Arghoslent is an inherently underground band, and they would have it no other way. If you are a fan of real death metal or metal at all, you owe it to yourself to listen to "Hornets of the Pogrom." As of writing this, it is the best album I have heard released in 2008 and that is not likely to change.

Originally written for http://evmg.blogspot.com/