Title: Dead Man Walking
Artiste: Arkangel
Genre: Thrash Metal
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: The Batlord
Expectations: Again, you never know: first Batty says “You're not weasling out of it” and then says “You'll love it”. Is the last ironic? Is he chuckling evilly to himself as he awaits my review? Probably, but my enjoyment of heavy metal has been enhanced and expanded over the last few years, so maybe I'll be having the last laugh. We'll see...
1. From Heaven we fall: Sort of atmospheric doomy opening then it kicks up, sort of boogie feel to it. Screeched vocal; these guys are from Argentina, but whether they sing in English or not I guess doesn't matter as I doubt I could make out any words in any case. Great guitar riffs though. Like the spoken part (from the Bible I assume?) at the end, the pealing bells. Good ending.
2. Written in black: This one just goes for the throat from the beginning. Powerful and fast.
3. Harbinger of doom: Unfortunately, the only Arkangel album ****ing Spotify hasn't got, so here I am YouTubing it. I think we moved into track three here. I hate counting up running times. Let's see... yeah this should be it. Slower, bit grindier than the previous track, but hard to pick out anything particular about it. Meh.
4. Day of Apocalypse: Really nice guitar intro here, which, believe it or not, reminds me of the overture to
Jesus Christ Superstar (seriously; there's some powerful guitar in that piece!) and rocks much better than the previous. Love the way it chugs along. Guitar work is special here.
5. Behold the face of death: I really need to pay attention here. The tracks are so short, and the transitions so almost immediate, I'm just keeping up by checking on the lyric sheet. This has that heavy doomy feel in parts, but otherwise it's really not that much different from the last two or three. At least I can hear he's singing in English, as I can definitely make out the title. I do like it I must say.
6. Twenty-one twenty-three: Another really nice doomy guitar riff to start off then it trundles along at a plodding pace compared to the previous tracks. Very short, but at least I can distinguish it from the others. Sort of a muttered vocal which is interesting. No idea what it's about, unless that's a reference to a year? Best yet anyway. Does it say anything that it is also the shortest? But that's not why I like it. It shows they can restrain it when required and are not all about mad thrash. Well, not all the time.
7. The darkest crime: I do see a lot of repetition in the lyrics, though then again I don't expect them to be winning any Grammys for songwriting! This has a nice sort of also slower, punchier feel, kind of like a tank rolling over you. And then reversing to make sure the job was done properly.
8. In the embrace of truth: Okay, it jumped into this track while I was writing this, an indication of how suddenly tracks change from one to the other. Faster, great riffs, with a slowing down in the middle which really works.
9. Fearful eye: Are these guys Cattle Decapitation-style Vegans? I think I heard Batty say that, and the lyric of this song seems to bear that out. Have to give kudos to a metal band who support what is generally seen as a “hippy” standpoint: I mean, most metal musicians would rather feature themselves on the cover, eating raw meat or hunting an animal or something, whereas these guys are totally against that. The song? Oh yeah. Forgot about that. It's pretty good really. Slower again with a real grind about it.
10. Within the walls of Babylon: Biggest gap between all the tracks. Must have been two seconds! I thought the album was over. Superb guitar intro, rocks along nicely.
End result: A whole lot better than expected. Some of the tracks were too short, ran into each other a little too much, made it hard to keep up (**** you Spotify!)
but overall while it's not an album I'd necessarily be returning to or listening to for pleasure, I certainly didn't hate it.
So, Love or Hate? I'll go out on a limb and give it a
Love.