Visigoth: The Revenant King

Trad metal revivalists suffer an attack of self-consciousness

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In a multicultural era, finding Visigoths in Salt Lake City is hardly surprising.

The desire to revisit metal’s roots in its various forms is constantly growing. Music losing its social significance on the background of the robotic blandness of the times is met by attempts to time-travel: to pretend to only own 15 albums, each life-changing and your album is fresh from the racks of Shades Records.

Visigoth tick all the boxes in doing just that, from the awesome logo and drawing (as opposed to horrendous Photoshop collaging) on the cover, to the epic, true, trad, real, honest, honourable, ’eavy fookin’ metal. At best, The Revenant King sounds like Mastodon giving pure trad metal a go. At worst, it’s in dangerous proximity to sub-par power metal. There’s Maiden, Viking-era Bathory and Manilla Road in there and hints of trad doom, even. Alas, as opposed to other retro acts, Visigoth’s DeLorean doesn’t switch on. You can hear the perspective and awareness, almost as if they want it too badly.

Via Metal Blade