#Alghol Night Eternal
Band: Alghol
Title: Night Eternal
Label: Independent / Black Occult
Release date: 28 July 2023 / 20 September 2023
Country: USA
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording
This is awesome. Another one-man Black Metal band, you said? I go for it. Never heard of Alghol, maybe I should ‘cause they have released two EPs and one full-length album (and a split with Panzewar, hey, I did my homework) in their three years of existence. But yeah, I can’t be everywhere. Anyway, I started listening to “Night Eternal” with a high dose of greed, as I usually always start. Let’s see what I found…
First of all, “The Witch Doctor”, ehh… I wasn’t sure I was listening to a Metal album. Percussion (and it seems like a djembe, or bongos?), along with repetitive piano notes playing a brief melody, and some “noises”… ? This surprised me a lot, and I was really curious now! After less than 2 minutes, the mystery totally faded. Oh yes, this is Black Metal, baby… guitars and drums are fully in and also some keyboards, and the obscure machinery starts going forward. I particularly like when the song speeds up past the half of it, the same repetitive riff playing again and again and the special sound of keys, that double bass drum pedal kicking your ass and vocals spitting out loud with fury.
“Noxious Opulence” was the first single released of this album, and it’s a heavy and dark track, lyrics also contribute to that. This is a path of no return, literally. The main tremolo riff sounds cold and sinister, the key notes give it an extra icy effect… Vocals are simply great, grim and menacing; the bass lines perfectly audible, drums changing the pace when required, perfect in my opinion. Maybe in the end the song becomes a bit repetitive, it’s because the same riff is played almost all the time, that’s what I think. Anyway, it’s very good.
There’s a song that specially caught my attention in this album, and it’s “What Lies Within”. This one has really special things running: the soft piano intro, then allowing guitars, bass and drums to add a “more heavy part”, still in a slow tempo until the double bass pedal decides to enter at full speed… some spare synth notes here and there… and, boom! Again, a surprise. This rhythm… THIS scream… oh, what have I missed?? It’s like the beginning of a Heavy Metal anthem! But no: in less than seconds, I realize I’m (still) listening to Black Metal. But with “something more”. Those vocals are damn good, and the special sound of keys gives the mix a depth I want to enter with no hesitation.
“Out from the Jungle” is a song leading you through a frenzy turmoil, both the music and the story told, and feels so good! Lyrics of course are not about flowers or pink unicorns. Instead, a bloody battle with swords and spears:
“A flash of my blade
Entrails scatter around me
A flick of the wrist
The severing of heads
A trail of corpses
Lying behind me
A village of victims
Directly ahead”
The thing about some songs being quite repetitive from start to finish, it’s because they are based mainly on the same riff going almost all through the song, but this also results in a kind of gripping effect on the listener. And the keyboard notes added just settle a bit more of gloom, I think that Pete Rodway (the man behind Alghol) wanted us to feel it. Well, he has put his soul into his music, this is his brainchild, and we as listeners have the right to feel it our own way too.
Nothing more to add. It’s a very good album for me, I give it 8/10 Sílvia
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8/10 To Greatness and Glory!
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