Arhont
S/T

January 2009
Released: 2008, Battlegod Productions
Rating: 3.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Good metal can come from any part of the world nowadays, right? From Bitola, Macedonia, comes this death metal act called Arhont that has also got their self-titled debut full-length album out last year, on the Australian label Battlegod Productions.



This 9-track effort introduces Arhont as a relatively technical and skilled death metal act that has decided to concentrate on a quite unorthodox solution structure-wise within their stuff – rather than pounding mercilessly 140 mph forward and killing everyone with simplicity and plain boredom eventually. To me, Arhont's sound could be described to be sort of a crossroad of sounds of bands like Nile and Hellwitch; a mixture of both bands´ signature sounds, stuck together in a somewhat successful way even.



Batskin on vocals sounds deceptively like a true re-incarnation of Karl Sanders while Arhont´s stuff comes across nicely Nile-inspired at places – added with those very unexpected timings that are Floridian Hellwitch´s true trademark of their song structures. This type of stuff that Arhont do, really appeals and stimulates my nerve cells of satisfaction. It´s challenging stuff – and it demands from its listener something a little bit more than just getting ready for some mindless wanking at your prime time on Sunday morning at 10:30, with your favorite ´Top 12´ heavily blast beat orientated death metal albums determining a rhythm for your wank fest session and keeping you company during that time.



However, the production lacks some heaviness on this otherwise pleasing album, so the final punch of the songs is basically missing from the band´s progressive death metal rolling. Despite this minor fault, Arhont were still able to leave a good general impression of their skills and themselves as far as the band´s debut was concerned - and I am already positive that I wanna hear their next release, too.