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Agatus > The Weaving Fates > Reviews
Agatus - The Weaving Fates

The Weaving Fates - 75%

Spatupon, September 15th, 2019
Written based on this version: 2002, CD, Iron Pegasus Records

When people think about Greek/Hellenic black metal, they usually think of bands such as Rotting Christ, Varathron, Kawir and other relatively well known bands , Agatus never came into any of my conversation about metal or extreme metal in general. I came across this band on you-tube, and this album served as a perfect introduction to the rest of their relatively small discography. This album is a very delicate mix of Norwegian, Swedish and Greek black metal. The primary bands that come to mind when I listen to this album are Bathory, Dimmu Borgir, Old man's Child and Iron Maiden.

Each strong seems to have a very interesting aura about it. Each song builds upon the previous one and the whole album manages to keep a straight-forward pace up until the end. The riffs are very basic, however they have a very imposing presence in the album, and even though they might not be the most technically proficient, inventive or technical, they certainly do sound inspired. The vocal styles alter between shrieks, growls, epic clean vocals and raspy shouts. The bass is inaudible and I don't really have anything to add about its influence on the overall tapestry of this full-length.

This album came out in 2002, around this period, melodic and symphonic metal were experiencing a glut. A lot of bands active in the mid 90s, disbanded. The two flagship bands for this sub-genre, Cradle of FIlth and DImmu Borgir were taking a different approach towards a very similar blend of classical music and black metal. Agatus chose to walk the less discovered path, and started mixing new-wave of British heavy metal, with mid-90s norwegian black metal, and this album is a testament to this band's proficiency and legitimacy.

The drums, are in my opinion one of the reasons why this album stands out so much for me, rather than other examples of this eclectic style of black metal. The drummer really seems to know what he is doing. He keeps each instrument glued as one cohesive unit. The drum-fills and patterns are almost entrancing. I just wish they were a little bit higher in the mix. One of my gripes with the production of this album, is that the vocals are too imposing. I believe that had the vocals been mixed lower, they would have still done a good job at delivering the uniqueness of the vocals, while at the same time allowing the same level of prominence to the other highlight instruments.

Another small problem I have with this album is that even though they band seems to be quite sure of its identity. There's a sort of self-acknowledgement in the song-writing. It is as if the band seems to be unable to truly stand out on its own two feet. I believe that this is one of the main reasons why this band remains so unknown and only worshiped by a very small cult-fanbase. I recommend this album to any metal maniacs who like their brand of black metal tinged with an epic british metal vibe.

Flaunting a finer thread - 70%

autothrall, August 1st, 2011

The Weaving Fates is another highly lauded record from Greeks Agatus, but once again I must take exception to the enormous amounts of praise I have seen targeted in its direction. Oh, this is a decent accounting of the band's talents, and superior to the debut, yet not even remotely extraordinary. Where it exceeds the Dawn of Martyrdom is in the production, and by a lesser margin, the writing. The sophomore takes a more organic approach to the guitar tone, but the whole mix is refreshingly clean, where its predecessor was far more of an epic, harried charge of melodic black metal which drew upon the obvious Swedish parallels. The Weaving Fates is still quite melodic, mind you, but the guitars are so brazen and straight in your face that it does a more effective job of hammering the point.

There's also a potent, barbaric measure to a number of the tracks that almost betrays the cheesy eloquence of its cover art. Straight heavy metal chord patterns are 'woven' through the faster, bleeding breaks of melody and the result often makes you want to slam a mug of your chosen ambrosia down on the temple floor. "The Weaving Fates", "Night of a Thousand Stars", and "Προγονολατρία (Ancestor Worship)" all exemplify such a principle, the latter my personal favorite of the band's career for its glistening, blissful bridge. Though the primary focus is on the guitars, the drums are also solid, and Agatus have not abandoned the synthesizers so favored by their Greek peers. Occasionally, these still feel somewhat cheesy, but I'd attribute this to the bright pads chosen to stand out from the guitar lines more than anything else. The harsher black metal vocals are just as bland as they have been for the previous releases, but Eskarth and Vorskaath will often use a more conversational, grimy tone that is far more appreciable if understated.

One aspect of the sophomore that I didn't really care for are the interludes and outros, which are pretty predictable, 'ancient' acoustic pieces with a minimum of percussion that never seem to go anywhere. The hidden 'outro' is a complete waste of time, one of those little clips of screwing around in the studio, packed into several minutes of silence. Who cares? At least tell a real joke or do something funny. The cover art is ugly and looks like a bad Romance novel from a time forlorn, or 1987. The lyrics are a mesh of the occult and mythological typically attributed to the Greek scene, but some of them are mediocre at best ("Era of Tiamat", "Προγονολατρία", or the title track). In the end, while a punchier and more poignant effort than the middling Dawn of Martyrdom, I simply have never derived as much enjoyment from this release as I have from Necromantia, Rotting Christ, Varathron, or a number of other Hellenic mainstays, including the brothers' other band Zemial, who are far more crude and evil than this. That said, The Weaving Fates would be unquestionably the place to start in the Agatus catalog.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com