When it comes to black metal, there are two sorts of bands – the ones who stay true to the genre whilst putting their own unique stamp on the music and trying new things, and the ones who are stuck in the past that inevitably create the same album time and time again with little variance from year to year. And unfortunately, Archgoat is a band that falls into the latter category.
It just feels like there has been no progression at all, and Archgoat is just spiralling in place, rather than doing anything fresh. There’s no uniqueness to the music; you could quite easily just slap some generic name on the album cover and nobody would be any the wiser – there’s nothing about The Apocalyptic Triumphator that stands out from the crowd. None of the songs are particularly striking and it’s difficult to maintain interest from start to finish.
The sound quality, whilst largely typical of the black metal scene, is muggy, low-quality and distorted, making it even more difficult to engage with the music, and as the final track comes to a close, you’re left feeling somewhat dissatisfied and wanting something more than what you’ve been given.
As a whole, The Apocalyptic Triumphator just isn’t all that exciting and adventurous, especially since there’s so many other bands in the genre doing exactly the same thing – if you’re wanting something engaging and original, then you’re best off looking elsewhere.
3/10
