Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Arghoslent > Arsenal of Glory > 2000, CD, Sempiternal Productions (Limited edition) > Reviews
Arghoslent - Arsenal of Glory

pffffft, what the fuck ever - 50%

Noktorn, June 20th, 2011

So is Arghoslent a death metal band? A lot of people have suggested that but I fail to see what exactly is so death metal about this music apart from the growling vocal performance. It's definitely not the riffs, since those are all cribbed from Iron Maiden and US power metal, and it's not the drumming, since that reminds me more of Amon Amarth than actual death metal, and it's not even the song structures, which are actually pretty poppy and accessible- so what is it? Well, nothing really- Arghoslent is more of an '80s heavy metal band with somewhat more aggressive rhythms and vocals than anything actually death metal. Power metal fans would listen to this sort of thing and confuse it for death metal, but I'm amazed at the number of other people who get tricked into it.

Of course whether or not Arghoslent are death metal is fairly irrelevant to whether they're good or not, but at the same time I harbor a weird animosity towards the band that I can't fully explain. It's a super overgrown emperor with no clothes syndrome, I guess; everyone listens to Arghoslent and thinks they're geniuses even though basically every idea present in their music comes from someone else. That's not to say that 'Arsenal of Glory' is without its moments- of course the band stumbles onto some cool riffs every once in a while- but those moments are so obviously lifted from other, better bands that I can't really give Arghoslent credit for them. For real, the members of Arghoslent should be paying royalties to the bands they ripped off, because every moment of their music is quite clearly jacked from someone else.

Really all the material on this disc is a mad dash to combine US power metal, melodeath (still substantially influenced by Iron Maiden and such,) melodic thrash, and even southern rock into a rather sickeningly sweet package that eschews intensity, aggression, and a truly unique songwriting paradigm in favor of something easy and accessible. To give Arghoslent credit, their development of riffs and melodies is a cut above the rest of the pack- or at least it would if a lot of those most interesting moments didn't sound like they were taken from Taake or Slavic black metal with their textured melodies and thrashy rhythms. In actuality, though, this is incredibly simple and pop-rock in design: the melodies are all very obvious ones taken from early '80s metal tempered by modern black or death metal's rhythmically heavy delivery, but they still leak out in the cock rock solos which I can't listen to without laughing my ass off.

If you get the Vinland Winds reissue of this disc, half the tracks from the original release are chopped off in favor of some horribly recorded live tracks where the guitars are the only easily audible thing in the mix. The drums are reduced to a background clatter and the vocals are so distorted they're basically pointless, and you hear the chatter of the geniuses in the crowd more often than is comfortable. Whole conversations were apparently exchanged near the recording device, inaudible enough to be frustrating but audible enough to reveal that the people seeing Arghoslent back in '98 were pretty fucking dumb.

While this is entirely listenable, it's still a study of style over function- Arghoslent doesn't have any personality (apart from racism) that's not taken from another more interesting and more relevant band. I can't stop anyone from thinking these guys are geniuses, but I'll do my best: there's nothing to see here. It's adequate if you just want to hear some SWEET RIFFS, but anyone else will find it lacking.