Arghoslent hailing from Virginia, USA are another one of those so-called “melodic death metal” bands with hardly anything in common with death metal at all. Rather Arghoslent play plain old heavy metal. Unlike their lame contemporaries from Gothenburg, Sweden, Arghoslent were once an effective heavy metal band who initially continued the work of their idols that past European power metal bands had merely emasculated. Arghoslent themselves would eventually stumble into these same stadium rock sins but not on Arsenal of Glory.
Arghoslent’s lyrics mostly emulated the epic historical themes of Iron Maiden. When not, the band infamously aimed for the provocative. Satanism and gore were not provocative enough to politically correct socialists in all but name who control the mainstream media spreading liberation narratives. Racism and antisemitism were and still are ever more so presently. All of Arghoslent’s recordings were “recorded south of the Mason-Dixon Line”, which gives them a certain blockhead appeal that endears ill-suited, political rather than artistic, enthusiasm towards the band’s later, inferior works.
This cassette (later reissued on CD by Drakkar Productions) improved upon promising earlier demos to present listeners with highly-effective and progressive heavy metal at ripping speed. Riffing was inspired by past heavy and speed metal greats like the aforementioned Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Megadeth, Destruction, and especially Mercyful Fate. Song structures were in the riff maze format pioneered by Mercyful Fate but with the pace was sped up to speed metal standards. Arghoslent kept a deliberate heavy metal riff arrangement rather than the chromaticism with shifting forward tonal centers of early Slayer as pointed out in our earlier review of Galloping Through the Battle Ruins.
The moods of the compositions were fittingly not occult like early Mercyful Fate but rather epic in the Manowar and Maiden style. Unleashed accomplished something similar a few years prior on Where No Life Dwells but from a more modern, death metal and hardcore approach. On Arsenal of Glory, whatever major scale modulations Arghoslent committed that would be way too cheesy in the hands of wimpier bands mostly were quickly paved over in epic and aggressive progressive heavy metal compositions; a Don’t Break the Oath if Mercyful Fate had heard death metal. Relative brevity and profundity makes Arsenal of Glory a very re-playable record to this day and still Arghoslent’s best.
Tags: 1996, Arghoslent, arsenal of glory, article, demo, drakkar productions, EP, Heavy Metal, review, Speed Metal, virginia
How does this band compare to other melodic death metal bands like Centinex Reflections ?
Centinex Reflections
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UkKubGDkXg
That’s an album and not a band. Answering such a silly question is difficult. Assume you have $something_which_sells. $Centinex is an imitation of $something_which_sold produced by blind children chained to an assembly line in a factory in Somalia after this became an attractive outsourcing location — these Asians are too damn demanding, can you imagine they expect to be allowed to eat and sleep ?!? Who can make a decent profit totally out of control worker’s rights like that !! — and it’s made from the left-overs of plastic shopping bags collected from the local beaches. The product isn’t really good for anything as it falls apart after half of one use but it’s extremely cheap and 100% recycled material.
Arsenal of Glory has an outmoded air to it, like something found in a corner of an attic which has been collecting dust for a long time, but that’s possibly a mannerism. As the text already said (this is based on Branding a Peon and The Negresse) it’s decidedly heavy metal in everything but the vocals, not just occasional heavy metal rifflets thrown into the “featureless stuff” soup.
Take the beginning of The Negresse. This starts with a 4 times repeated 3-part galloping riff speed-metal style riff in a mellowed, unsual key with second guitar setting in with some power chords in the third part, a run up to something. Then, there a vocal growl leading into a fast, tremolo-picked part creating suspense because of it’s whirring movement (I meant flirren here) which is resolved into a single-string lead one guitar starts to play with the other falling in for heavy metal style dual harmony. Then, the actual track starts.
In contrast to this purposeful and effective composition, Reflections seems like a foggy vortex of familiar but worn-out shapes slowly and aimlessly rotating around a center of nothingness.
holy fuck you forgot to take your meds again
How did that polysyllable sneak into your sentence, dear Mr “Fucking important me in fucking important hurry!!”? If you don’t treat the language you claim to be born with with the usual contempt, people might in the end come to assume you’d care for anything but “fucking IMPORTAMT you”.
Please make that: “Bust mak mee feeg” and ” and “Holf! Yo’fg tak medsagin!”.
oh man how am I ever going to recover from such a horrendous burn?
you really should take those meds btw
Even a modicum of creativity is better than an at least 16 years old boilerplate ‘witticism’. OTOH, a statement in support of Centinex > Arghoslent obviously has to be like this.
Centinex sucks and believe it or not, I am not a doctor!
“modicum of creativity”, that’s creative, you didn’t create it, you just remembered it and used it correctly. I recognize you didn’t directly state that a modicum was a quantity of creativity which was less than the quantity you possess, which would be contain a lot of fishy assumptions resting on even shakier premises. I would expect to find the most creative person writing long winded replies, pleased with how clever they all sound when read and re-read.
What the fuck is an arghoslent? That is the most akward pronounciatitrjondslent
You dimwits stop making fun of the Great Art Goss Goulet ! Goss Goulet rules !
performing with awesome BulbNose Baggins and Crotch Canvas, there is no denying the power of Goss Goulet and the fruity ass.
ignore arghoslent, cheap peasant imitation of gargantuan proportions dribbled in mash potato time gravy.
Le Goss goulet. de fruite dans la pantalon et poulet dans la pantalon
Real war shemale warrior core to go with Blasphemy’s tranny hump and grind.
It was supposed to be “slave ship”, but like so many metal bands that try to use languages they don’t actually know, they messed up their Greek and got “someone who lives in a fortress” instead.
Unleashed is better.
More like Arseholestench…
And what’s with every vaguely power-metal-related album being compared to Mercyful Fate anymore? You’ll poseurs need to know of at least one more heavy metal band more obscure than Iron Maiden if you’re even going to talk about power metal.
Talk to the band’s guitarist in person and he’ll flat out tell you mercyful fate is his main inspiration. he said the same thing in every grand belial’s key interview. dumbfuck.
But this ep does not sound like MF, so the reviewer’s comparison was not apt and that was the message which my post attempted to comminucate.
But you’re telling me that though the guitarist tries to ape MF’s riff style that the two bands sound similar in fact? No wonder you didn’t understand what I was saying…
Judging from a side-by-side comparison, the riffs do. They’re just played a little faster and there’s obviously nothing of this entirely atrocious 1980s “neon knights” style (for want of a better term).
In terms of atmosphere and structure the songs on this ep don’t even approach MF territory (and that’s not a technical call and not a coment on quality).
Not every heavy metal song made of back and forth chunky-smooth harmonic minor scale riffs deserves the MF comparison.
I have to admit that I’m prejudiced in this respect — the very fact that Arghoslent demo has nothing of the “Don’t Break the Oath” atmosphere makes it much more palatable to me. This “I asked her for glory and she gave me cocaine — that’s nice as well” stuff is not for me, IOW, I’m not (and wouldn’t want to be) qualified to make judgement about reality quality here. But the “inspired by Mercyful Fate” is easily noticable on this recording, much in the same way as later Arghoslent stuff uncannily resembles Running Wild.
My knowledge of musical theory is too poor to pin this down on something but it can be heard.
“Racism and antisemitism were and still are ever more so presently …”
Man, wake up, the 80s are over, now with Trump in the White House calling nazis “nice people”, prominent german professors rehabilitating the 3rd Reich, and a general worldwide march to the next world war, as well as unprecedented levels of income inequality in the West and falling standards for workers everywhere, the EU falling apart, and the so-called left backing all that with only lip service to it’s past principles, YOU GUYS HAVE WON.
Lennon resurected would be more counter-culture today than he was in the 60s.
this post reads like something a frumpy substitute teacher would write on a bad day on facebook, and that’s not an insult, I’m just saying it drives home just how establishment your ideas are. Trump winning doesn’t automatically undo 50 years of critical theory and other forms of “cultural marxism” (I’m sure you hate that word but bare with me) being pushed by academia and the corporate world. Google recently commemorated Yuri Kochiyama, a Maoist who loved Osama Bin Laden for committing 9/11. You’re corporate and establishment, get over it.
And Marx worshiped Hegel. Rightfully.
Marx spoke little about culture other than it would consist of a natural outpouring of creativity from a population freed from wage slavery.
Marx wasn’t a 21st century leftist. Faggot.
Google et al. are just posturing at being liberal, Trump in the white house is the final straw of a decades-long degeneration.
Yeah, the official discourse is geared toward reassuring people, so there’s still that wiff of liberalism (more and more remote from what it once was), but counter-culture doesn’t mean you’re adopting a posture that only a minority of the population would adhere to, it’s about not being in line with the powers that be.
I’d say it’s not only teachers that can write what I do, I’ve heard it from people working in Amazon centers, car factories, train drivers…
> corporate world
> Pushing Marxism
Pick one.
>political rather than artistic
Endearing your art to right wingers is making an artistic decision. It’s an implicit rejection of egalitarian thinking.
There’s nothing more political about Arghoslent’s later stuff, even if it’s less inspired musicall. Their lyrics were always the same formula: spanish conquistador LARP which views racial superiority though a “dark enlightenment” (read: neckboard, monarchist) lense.
Metalheads really need to get over their classist gag reflex over anything skinhead related, because trust me, a lot of RAC shits all over even the best Arghoslent and NSBM stuff.
“a lot of RAC shits all over even the best Arghoslent and NSBM stuff.”
Bring it on.
exampres prease
Racist lyrics are a good thing. You see plenty of SJW hipster faggots walking around in Burzum shirts, but you never see any of them walking around in Arghoslent gear.
Yeah but you'll see plenty of politically neutral people who are "only in it for the music, man," wearing GBK and Arghoslent stuff. Point being, music is practically inherently apolitical, especially now. If one is utilizing it as a political platform then it is the most passive aggressive way to do so, that will only reach those one already agrees with.
Also, just being racist/provocative shouldn't be enough to characterize a rallying voice for revolution. It needs to be backed by genuine elite and radical intelligence. Trump should not be embraced by white elitists. He is the stereotype of an importunate plutocrat/demagogue. Anyone who is in true support of a hierarchical, authoritarian regime and in support of reestablishing a proud aristocracy/nobility should be able to recognize this. His very existence is slanderous to proud white people everywhere. Just because he is the current symbol of radical change does not mean he should be accepted as a leader
Since when does DMU moderate comments?
A previous poster had mentioned that Arghoslent had commended Obama for being a ‘smart Black man,’ and a reply stated their views were ‘confused.’
The interview in question was with the now-defunt site Left Hand Path. Great interviews but they were far too kind to hipster metal.
Apologizes S.C., did not intend that comment directed toward you.
No apologies necessary. But I am curious as to which comment you were addressing.
Sounds compelling in theory. But ‘a nobility’ would need to be ‘noble’, that is, in possession of outstanding virtues, and it’s somewhat unclear where such people would come from. The European nobility degenerated into meaninglessness from the point on where they were forced to “make a living like everyone else” and thus, became like everyone else, in the first half of the 19th century and then ended with a whimpy bang (in Germany): The people who forced masses of everybodies to run into machine gun fire while living in safe and luxurious comfort themselves, who then plotted to overthrow the monarchy in order to save their own assess, turned into state-sanctioned common murderers after the emperor was gone and finally ended up ruining a larger part of Europe for the sole purpose of fighting a pointless war certainly don’t qualify.
Well of course. Were a nobility to be reinstated it would have to be comprised of those noble in character and intellect. Thus my reason for denouncing such imbecilic, importunate man children like Trump.
They come from the revolutionaries who risk their skins and everything they hold dear in order to bring about radical change. Nothing is so simple in reality as it is written, but a trend can be noticed that in every beginning of a great age or regime there is a level of purity and higher standers that will only degrade until it is time for new radical change. Now is that critical time for the west’s current regimes in which radical change will usher in new orders bringing with them a renewed purity.
Thanks for the reply.
I could obviously argue with this but I won’t. Somebody else already discovered “we are all equal except some of us are more equal than the others” as de facto organizational principle of egalitarian societies. In many ways, society seems to be organized for “rule of the worst”. This appears deficient.
I believe that nature is innately hierarchical and humanity, of course, reflects this. There those meant to lead and those meant to follow. With everyone desiring to be leaders of their own destiny we are left at a societal standstill. There is no growth only a cyclic chaos based on the flavour of the week. But with a head upon the body of society then there can be direction. Being of a ruling class should not be an indulgent, hedonistic life. It should be a life of gravest responsibility, focused upon everything but one’s self. The ruled should live “normal” lives of indulgence and relative comfort, so long as they understand their role and do their part. It is entirely apparent that mossy of everyone do not know what to do with all of their freedom of choice, or that entirely unsuitable individuals can play important roles in society, such as doctors, not because they are actually capable of being effective in such roles, but because of sheer determination alone. Nothing of truly monumental importance had been accomplished by the participation of common folk. Only advances in making the common folks life more comfortable.
The red army did beat back the wehrmacht not because of outstanding leaders but because of a mass of determined commoners (and great winters that they knew how to endure better than the so-called “nordic” germans).
Obviously the herd has won as the ruling class because if the many don’t want to be ruled then there is no way that the few can. It doesn’t make the will of the herd any more noble or exceptional. The majority of people must submit totally to authority in order to reap its benefits, otherwise authoritarianism is entirely unsustainable. But we have yet to find a societal construct that is, and likely there isn’t. Surely everything that lives must abide by the laws of death.
Historically, whoever marched an army accross the vast plains of emptiness in eastern Europe ended up losing the war. This would be Napoleon in 1812, tsarist Russia in WWI and Germany in WWII. In addition to lots of liberally used cannon fodder, Stalin had vastly shorter supply lines, a much larger industrical capacity producing more modern weapons than the Germans initially fielded, an army properly equipped for dealing with the Russian climate from the start and could also take advantage of the strategic blunders (Stalingrad, Zitadelle) resulting from Hitler’s inept interference.
Re: Pantera. I was never exposed to them, as a teen in the ’90s. I’ve repeatedly read (on DMU and DLA) that they suck dick, are fake as fuck, have A.I.D.S., and are meathead ex-glam guys.
I just looked up their hit single, “Cematery Gates”. It has one decent riff — the one that’s, like, a harmonic minor scale-climb– and one shit riff.
Be that as it may…is Dimebag Darrell a great guitarist/soloist? That solo seemed pretty dope, considering the 2-dimensional structure he played it over.
The next youtube video was Bodycount covering ‘Raining Blood’…and they play the intro riff wrong. And use no vibrato on the fretboard. FML.
Look at the sources who call Dimefag a great guitarist. They are the same ones who swing from the nuts of Slash, Flea, and that failed gigolo from Dream Theater. Their sense of pattern recognition is so critically underdeveloped that a few seconds of high-speed pentatonic blather is perceived by them to be soulful and intimately expressive but only because others have told them that such is reality. You know better so don’t ask stupid questions but you’re welcome anyway.
Those fools are the same type of fools who are deluded that Azagthoth > Brunelle and Abbath > Demonaz.
whoawhoaWHOA D! Brunelle is superior to Azagthoth?!
Did he only play on ‘Abominations of Desolation’? Cuz I haven’t gone any earlier than ‘Altars of Madness’. If you aren’t shitting me, the Brunelle is gonna make my brain melt.
from the little I know, Richard Brunelle probably IS a superior guitar shredder compared to Trey Azagthoth, but Brunelle has only one song writing credit in Morbid Angel, correct? …weird, eh?
I don’t think I ever enjoyed a metal album with political overtones in it of any kind. It’s what made Slayer mediocre in their latter career to begin with.
I wasn’t that huge on the whole Thrash, punk, what-have you ‘statement’ eras either. I’d rather listen to a boring, run-of-the-mill Black Metal album than a “good” political album like any Birth A.D (*spit*).
I understand the whole “fuck your feelings” thing, but as a listener “who doesn’t give a fuck”, I am simply not moved.
Let escapist genre, be escapist.
“fags are gay”
Let escapist genre, be escapist.
»Escapism« is an accusation unimaginative people like throw at anything they want to frame as mere entertainment which doesn’t entertain them, that is, which doesn’t make them laugh (and feel elevated) because of its intentional sillyness. Hence, they invent a hidden meta-silliness (“Escapism!”) to justify their dismissiveness (and feel elevated because of that).
There are more important things in life than the eternal squabbling among people who are sufficiently full of it that they believe to have The masterplan for fixing life, universe and everything were they only allowed to force others to do their bidding what said masterplan actually is[*].
[*] Heinlein once describe ‘parliament’ as a way to isolate all these people in a room together where the can bitch freely among themselves without getting in the way (in “The moon is a harsh mistress”).
Logical fallacy again bro. You’re not having much luck with this are you?
There’s no conclusion derived from some set of premises in there, just a speculation about the origin of the (frankly idiotic) term escapism which is based on reading a couple of hapless attempts to ‘explain’ which (mental deficiencies, for sure) ’cause’ people to spend time with something whose apparent fascination the respective author absolutely doesn’t understand, an assertion about the lack of value of “talking about politics” and a paraphrased quote.
Hence, the justification for your attempt to divert from the content of the statement to the usual attack on the author is bogus.
“»Escapism« is an accusation unimaginative people like throw at anything they want to frame as mere entertainment which doesn’t entertain them, that is, which doesn’t make them laugh (and feel elevated) because of its intentional sillyness.”
That’s the only worthwhile statement you’ve contributed to this website in a long time.
A lot of people are into Der Stürmer now, I’ve met a few people, men and women in person with their shirts. I think that is a great thing as the people I know are mentally sharp and physically powerful with a great sense of humor. Nothing like what the fucking fat sack of micro penis in Krieg and other faggots would have you believe everytime they describe as anyone liking those bands as total inbred fat rednecks who cannot read. I haven’t fucking met one person who made it to the depths of hateful metal who is like that, they had to read about it somehow.