Edgy War Metal - "The Apocalyptic Triumphator" Review (0%)
Crossing doom and very simplistic death metal styles with a black metal aesthetic of constant high-intensity drumming and droning riffs, Archgoat attempt to make 'ritualistic' black metal in the vein of Phantom and Beherit, but ends up making 'war metal' that often sounds like it is assembled from spare parts found on various early 90s demos.
First, let's get one thing straight, The Apocalyptic Triumphator is not black metal.
At best it's a death/stoner mix and a rather uninspiring attempt at that. Black metal is supposed to invoke a sense of dread in the listener, this doesn't. In fact it's quite tiresome because it's just so generic and boring.
Those who like Darkthrone styled death metal, Von and early Blasphemy might find this a bit interesting as it clearly tries to be in the same register, particularly the vocals which sound identical to those of Goat, but not nearly as good.
Where Darkthrone had a clear goal for each riff, Archgoat just plows on to the point where it gets so boring that you stop hearing the music even though you're still listening to the album. The parts where the tempo is lowered really shows that Archgoat has great difficulty in establishing atmosphere beyond copying the superficial layers of a style pioneered by more talented band.
The vocals are clearly an attempt of creating a black/death metal hybrid, the problem is that they combine the worst of both worlds: none of black metal's emotion, none of death metal's brutality. The same can be said for the rest of the music by the way.
Edgy War Metal
Beneath the very obvious stylistic Phantom/Beherit/Von imitation, The Apocalyptic Triumphator is basically doom/stoner rock with 'heavy' distortion. Conceptually, it's closer to second tier Motörhead worship than to anything Darkthrone or Burzum ever produced.
What Archgoat does if not well, at least decently, is continuity. Each riff relates to the rest, and those to a central theme, the problem is that the music never goes anywhere. Nothing ever progresses. There is no narrative, like there is on those bands Archgoat is attempting to ape.
Not on The Apocalyptic Triumphator nor on any other album from the band. Once you've heard one song from them, you've heard their entire discography.
In the end, listening to one entire album - especially The Apocalyptic Triumphator, which isn't their best - is quite tedious and gets boring relatively fast. It sounds like poorly played doom, or maybe some slowed down thrash. Yawn.
There is no aggression or intensity on this album.
It's very flaccid, certainly not a lot of testosterone went into making this music.
In other words, it's boring. And it all sounds the same.
As a whole, The Apocalyptic Triumphator is stupid 'war metal' and consists of a single track repeated in ten variants.
Plus two pseudo-ambient intros.
Yes, two intros.
Don't ask.
The Apocalyptic Triumphator score: 0/100.
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