Black metal can wind its way down many paths – and we have covered many of them in the podcast – as well as on this review site. But, if we are honest, black metal is supposed to be an absolute assault of the senses, a violent output of aggression, a frosty fist to the windpipe…and on ‘The Old Sprit Remains’, Arrogant Destruktor have taken their tops off and got proper stuck in.
Hailing from Birmingham, UK, these guys have gathered up a monumental collection of riffs and clandestine savagery on this, their fourth full-length album. Tearing a strip in even the most taut of leather jacket, opener ‘Total Maniacal War!’ pulverises and leads straight into the ferocious blasting in ‘Assandun’. Positioning a much more melodic, even hypnotic, epic in ‘Swing of the Blade’ so early on is a daring decision but one that, ultimately, pays off.
Highlights further into the album include ‘Under The Church’ with its almost post punk feel within its caustically dissonant progressions, the abrasive rhythms of the title track, and the trad BM spiky affair that is closer ‘Frost Eternal’.
There is no doubt that ‘The Old Spirit Remains’ gets out of breath quite quickly after the opening maelstrom, but this doesn’t mean that it isn’t easily able to adapt, and run a different type of race. In an age where albums often get cosy in their sound rapidly, Arrogant Destruktor have the rare ability to be able to keep you guessing, to challenge song writing norms and to proudly bear forth a sound that they make all their own.
‘The Old Spirit Remains’ is without argument a great way to spend 39 minutes of your life and evokes enough of the past as well as presenting plenty of the now. UKBM is fine on the evidence of this.
Best Paired With: a pentagram in your aunt’s basement, being cold and having your lips tattooed.
Reviewed by Jaff.
Arrogant Destruktor – The OId Spirit Remains is out now on Satanath Records.
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