Argentum - Mega Post!

Argentum are a black/death/doom metal band from Mexico. Any avid metal fan who searches his metal vigorously on metal archives must be familiar with "drowned" guy on that site. While, I do agree that I dont go by metal archives reviews, but there are certain users that happen to rate music judiciously and give appropriate scores to the albums on that site. So, dont be surprsed if you see "The 3rd and the Mortal" getting a high average ratings on that site and Asphyx's "The Rack" lagging behind with 75 percent of average scores. Enough of metal-archives talk, lets get down to the real deal. The "Drowned" fella seems to be engrossed in old school death metal and death/doom. Half of the obscurities of the early 90s and late 80s have been added by him. So it was pretty genuine for me to check some of his reviews out. It happened that there was only one album rated with a 100 per cent. What did you expect? diSEMBOWELMENT or Convulse or Winter? Nah, It was Argentum's debut "Ad Interitum Funebrarum". Frankly speaking, that was the only motive behind getting that album because the RYM ratings are rather disappointing for that album. I gave the albums a few listens, and forgot about it and it baffled me why this album was rated so high by that guy? Yesterday, I went to jog and decided to give this album a spin on my ipod. Canalophones do come in handy if you want to fully appreciate the beauty of a rather underproduced album. Bull's eye! It was a chilly and a foggy winter morning and the album worked like a wonder. I couldnt believe that this was the same band I had decided to snub a couple of months earlier.

This album has everything I love to hear in a doom metal record. Sinister use of growls and high pitched howlings, extremely downtuned riffs constantly buzzing in the background, and a thick bass supporting the scary instrumentation. Some of you guys know my love for bands like Faustcoven and Dark Prophecies, But this is beyond everything. The keyboards create a dark atmosphere and are masterfully used here. The second album is equally good with better production but little weaker in songwriting and is way too short and leaves you gasping for more. The two demos are raw and contain faster sections more in the vein of Bathory and early Celtic Frost.

Ad Interitum Funebrarum @ 320 Kbps
Mediafire Guys

Stigma Mortuorum @ Mediafire
The two demos

Mater Misericordiae 1993

Exothaernium 1994

Faustcoven - Rising From Below The Earth (2008)

Genre - Death/Doom with Black and Traditional Doom influences
Review - By the time I had discovered this band, they were already pretty famous among renowned metal listeners. I was introduced to this band in the latter part of the last year by one of the most trusted metalhead from my country. His recs hardly fail and I just grabbed this chance with both hands. Downloaded it, Listened to it, Liked it and completely forgt about it.

One fine morning I decided to buy this from the legendary record Barbarian Wrath (Yes the same label that is synonymous with the word kvlt and they do sign some of the greatest BM acts). Remeber Countess' Heilig Vuur, Hail's the Inheritence of Evilness, Megiddo's Devil and the Whore and the czech awesomeness Amon Goeth?? They are some of the greatest BM bands making music today and Faustcoven joined the league of those Extraordinary Motherfuckers a few years back. Their debut The Halo of Burning Wings was widely acclaimed as a landmark album by critics. On this album they have picked right from where they had left but just became more mature and if you didnt notice it in their debut already, they also got a session drummer(Yes The drumming does sound a lil mechanical on the debut). They also manage to shed a lot of down tuned low muffling guitar sound and decided to opt for thick, heavy tones instead. Arguably the primary genre here is death/doom. Obviously you still have a lot of Black metal influences just like their fellow partners in crime Hail. But what makes it an even more interesting album is its influences from Heavy metal and Traditional doom legends. Thats precisely the reason why I like this better than Hail and the band's debut. There is one mind blowing cover of Angel Witch's song from their 1981 demo Give It Some Tickle. Now who would cover a song as obscure as that (Look, Its not even on AW's more famous albums "Angel Witch " and "Screamin' and Bleedin' "). These guys must have heard a shitloads of obscure heavy/NWOBHM back in the day.

Underlying those layered ultra-slow-heavy-as-fuck guitar riffs lies solos reminiscent of heavy metal. The album begins with an epic 11 minute long magnum opus self titled track and everything else from there is like a journey. Its as if you are experiencing some some evil rites being performed in satan's abode. The echo laden deep and throaty growls are sinister enough to give you nightmarish sleeps.

All in all, a gem of an album which will be considered a cult classic in 10 years from now on. Certainly the second best of 2008. Basically any band with influences ranging from Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Black Sabbath, Angel Witch, Mercyful Fate, Winter cant really fail, or can IT??

-EyeHateDoG
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