Ελληνικά
Genre: Epic Heavy Metal
Country: U.S.A.
Label: Metal Blade
Year: 2018
Visigoths were a Germanic tribe originally from southern Scandinavia that led by Alaric, sacked Rome in 410 AD and put an official end to the already declining Roman Empire, before settling in Spain and creating their kingdom there. Visigoth are also a heavy metal band whose kingdom is in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, formed in 2010 and “Conqueror’s Oath” is their second album.
We already knew from their first 2015’s full length, “The Reverend King” that they can play good traditional heavy metal, but in this attempt they raised the bar of epicness way higher. Straight from the beginning, “Steel and Silver” and its überepic chorus shows the mood of the record, which takes us back in an age when the ancient world was giving its way to the early Medieval Times and Europe was an ongoing battlefield between tribes fighting their way through Empires reshaping them. Visigoth managed to capture a polemic atmosphere throughout the record with marching tempos, multiple vocals layers in the choruses, which is one of their strongest elements, and twin guitars with riffing and melodies that serve as the tunes of war. The epicness they achieve is either built up gradually in longer compositions with intros and galloping paces like in the excellent “Traitor’s Gate” and the title track, or is the outcome of faster and more straightforward songs like in “Outlive Them All” and “Blades In The Night”. This diversity, even within the same song, keeps the intensity of the music and the interest of the listener going from start to finish. The only song that doesn’t belong to the ‘blood and iron’ concept is the more rock and roll “Salt City”, obviously a homage to their hometown and local scene, we even get to know what kind of beer they drink there.
“Conqueror’s Oath” is both an instant winner and a grower. It is much better than their debut, which was already good enough. I can’t think of many contemporary and relevant bands (No, Manowar haven’t been one since years) that stay true to classic heavy metal forms delivered in such epicness, as Visigoth do, only Grand Magus at their best. In the very strict notion of the term, Visigoth are not playing epic metal, they are playing heavy metal which is epic as fuck. But don’t start thinking about those pedantic stuff, like Obelix who could not whose understand why the name meant Goths from the West, even though they were leaving east of Gaul. What you need to remember is that the band’s sonic attack is as lethal as that of their ancestors with the same name.
5/6
