VISIGOTH
Following 2015’s ‘The Revenant King’, Visigoth return with the appropriate trve metal album you would expect to listen to whilst burning villages and destroying your opponents’ will to live! Jamison Palmer and Leeland Campana return to lead the power metal riffing anthems along with Jake Rogers on vocals, Matt Brotherton on bass, in addition to ex-Killbot member Mikey T. on drums.
Power metal attitude exudes from beginning to end with ‘Conqueror’s Oath’, that harkens back mightily to sensational power metal anthems from years past. Fans of Cirith Ungol and the legendary Manowar need to check out this band ASAP! Powerful riffs are present right out of the gate with ‘Steel and Silver’ showing off the overall toughness found in many Maiden tunes. Rogers does a spectacular job with hitting all the powerful notes.
‘Warrior Queen’ and ‘Outlive them All’ continue this momentum forward, with awesome transformative guitars that show off classic sounds by somehow offering something fresh and new to the trve metal genre. ‘Traitor’s Gate’ is one of my early picks for favourite track of the year! It has nearly everything going for it with a romantic build from a ballad-esque opening movement that quickly pummels you with a brilliant march into a killer chorus that should knock you on your ass. Then, we bump into the next track…
‘Salt City’, while not horrid by any means, just comes off as a B-Side that could be mistaken for a lame 90s’ Jackyl track that I take issue with being a part of a killer lineup of songs. Again, it’s not bad, but I would expect a track like this to be on a movie soundtrack or fun collection of random cuts release, not here.
This release ends with two well-timed bookends that bring us to a sudden close. ‘Blades in the Night’ has awesome power metal build and a catchy chorus, while the title track drives a winning bastard sword deep into our innards from the onset with mighty opening duelling guitars. The final chanting chorus of the title song rings in my ears for days after hearing it. Well played Visigoth, well played!
My one gripe about this release is that it feels like it is over so quickly. That and ‘Salt City’ being plopped in the middle, seemingly by accident. You almost feel that their goal was to leave you feeling like you want more; unfortunately, that feeling hits you harder than most releases. Just when it starts to get into a groove, it bops over into another track and, even worse, you are at the end of the album before you know it! Clocking in just over 42 minutes will do that, I suppose.
Power metal attitude exudes from beginning to end with ‘Conqueror’s Oath’, that harkens back mightily to sensational power metal anthems from years past. Fans of Cirith Ungol and the legendary Manowar need to check out this band ASAP! Powerful riffs are present right out of the gate with ‘Steel and Silver’ showing off the overall toughness found in many Maiden tunes. Rogers does a spectacular job with hitting all the powerful notes.
‘Warrior Queen’ and ‘Outlive them All’ continue this momentum forward, with awesome transformative guitars that show off classic sounds by somehow offering something fresh and new to the trve metal genre. ‘Traitor’s Gate’ is one of my early picks for favourite track of the year! It has nearly everything going for it with a romantic build from a ballad-esque opening movement that quickly pummels you with a brilliant march into a killer chorus that should knock you on your ass. Then, we bump into the next track…
‘Salt City’, while not horrid by any means, just comes off as a B-Side that could be mistaken for a lame 90s’ Jackyl track that I take issue with being a part of a killer lineup of songs. Again, it’s not bad, but I would expect a track like this to be on a movie soundtrack or fun collection of random cuts release, not here.
This release ends with two well-timed bookends that bring us to a sudden close. ‘Blades in the Night’ has awesome power metal build and a catchy chorus, while the title track drives a winning bastard sword deep into our innards from the onset with mighty opening duelling guitars. The final chanting chorus of the title song rings in my ears for days after hearing it. Well played Visigoth, well played!
My one gripe about this release is that it feels like it is over so quickly. That and ‘Salt City’ being plopped in the middle, seemingly by accident. You almost feel that their goal was to leave you feeling like you want more; unfortunately, that feeling hits you harder than most releases. Just when it starts to get into a groove, it bops over into another track and, even worse, you are at the end of the album before you know it! Clocking in just over 42 minutes will do that, I suppose.
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Metal Blade
Album
CONQUEROR'S OATH
Review by Joshua Jaeger
RUNNING TIME:
42:25
RELEASE DATE:
9th Feb 2018
TRACK LISTING
1) Steel and Silver
2) Warrior Queen
3) Outlive Them All
4) Hammerforged
5) Traitor's Gate
6) Salt City
7) Blades in the Night
8) The Conqueror's Oath
2) Warrior Queen
3) Outlive Them All
4) Hammerforged
5) Traitor's Gate
6) Salt City
7) Blades in the Night
8) The Conqueror's Oath
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
USA
"...harkens back mightily to sensational power metal anthems from years past."
