This was a much anticipated release. I've looked forward to it ever since their debut 2001 on Akhenaten's (Judas Iscariot) label Breath of Night Records stunned me completely. I remember I thought something like "damn, this good have no one ever sounded since Darkthrone's Under a Funeral Moon-album".
Nowadays they're hyped as fuck, but they prove that they can live up to the expectations because their second output "Only True Believers" amaze me again.
A much thicker, less distorted and more "bassy" soundscape reach my ears after the somewhat funny intro. "Refuse the Blood of Jesus" is a fast story with lot's of drum-pattern changes and much other variations. Directly you hear that Armagedda have spent their energy on speed and brutality this time. The drumming is a chapter of it's own, becuase it's much variated and very very good. Pounding double-bassdrums is mixed with blastbeats and other changes for almost every riff.
Riffs are as always power-chords with much slides and tone changes up and down put together nicely. Though not very original at times. One of the best things about Armagedda (besides a great vocalist and good riffs) is that the drummer and the guitarist play well together, it really sounds tight as fuck! Riffs are much more variated than the average primitive blackmetal-band. Their music is quite full of melody at times, dark melodies of melancholy and misanthropy perhaps, but there's melody and that's great. You really get tired of all supposed "true" bands with their diehard attitude and one or two riffs in their songs, which are played over and over again 300 times.
Right in the second song "Only True Believers" you realize how great the vocalist Graav are. His screams fit's perfectly with the music and that little reverb-effect used, enchant it even more. His abrupt pronouncement on the words and razor-filled throat is beyond great. I can even state that he's better than his "mentor" Nocturno Culto himself. Fucking superb. The last part in the song underlines my thoughts and I lay back, enjoying this piece of black metal.
They have developed their music quite much since the strong debut, which was slower and more "un-melodious" death-Celtic Frost-metal oriented. That one had a much rawer and dark sound, but I must say that I like this one a little more. I would also say that this production is top-notch, dammit. The Necromorbus Studio must be the first choice for all kvlt blackmetal-bands living in Sweden.
I end this shite with saying that the mid-part in "
Poetry From a Poisoned Mind" with that gloomy, tortured scream is one of the best brakes in a song I've ever heard and listen to those drum-fills after. Damn, fucking art!
Sweden shows once again that they are a top-country when it comes to blackmetal.
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=p8t1i9_V3ho
