Album Review: Visigoth - 'The Revenant King'

Hailing from Utah (it's just as cold in winter as Scandinavia, right?!), Visigoth gave listeners a small snippet of their classic inspired brand of heavy metal through the agency of 2010's demo and their 2012 released EP. Now, the band, taken on by Metal Blade, release their debut full length album, ‘The Revenant King'...and, in a convenient nutshell, it’s a heavy metal attack with traditional themes, grandiose production and a sincere execution.

The title track wastes no time getting into the action as it throws us straight into bulky riffs and resonating chords that make the entire eight minutes worth every second. Throw in the noteworthy vocal range of Jake Rogers and this track proves a powerful beast that gets the ball rolling.

‘Dungeon Master’ again lifts the bar with fun, catchy riffs and layered vocals, which create something powerful. The slower interlude, in the middle of the song, takes a break from the assault but creates a build up that comes crashing down in a fury of head banging goodness.

The vocals are melodic and prove to be one of the real high points throughout the record, with such a diverse range and a powerful execution. The gritty delivery that ends with small growls are well-placed and mixed with the higher, more angelic sounds work in unison to complement each other. Equally, ‘Mammoth Rider’ highlights these aforementioned gritty vocals while ‘Blood Sacrifice’ is a solid example of those whaling high notes. Put simply, these tracks work so well one after the other.

Visigoth choose to incorporate a cover of ‘Necropolis’ on the album, which might seem a tad strange for a debut effort, but the group has tweaked it, beefed it up with riffs and made it something worthy of this collection of tracks.

Moreover, ‘Creature of Desire’ contains unforgettable hooks before the full-length comes to a close with ‘From Arcane Mists of Prophecy’, which greets the listener with everything typical of what preceded it.

This one is for the long-haired purists that like their metal classic in approach and loud in execution.

‘The Revenant King’ is as classic as classic metal can get. The vocal ranges are a driving force and the solid guitar riffs and hooks are both powerful and infectious. For a debut album, Visigoth have definitely set the bar high for all their future musical endeavours.

1. The Revenant King

2. Dungeon Master

3. Mammoth Rider

4. Blood Sacrifice

5. Iron Brotherhood

6. Necropolis

7. Vengeance

8. Creature of Desire

9. From the Arcane Mists of Prophecy