| Reviews for Arkangel (Ven)'s Arkangel |
| Godly - 100% |
| Written by KilluA
on June 9th, 2008
|
| This is probably the reason metal still exists in Venezuela. Along with Resistencia's debut. Thanks to these albums which popularized metal, we got imports such Number Of The Beast, Holy Diver, Reign In Blood (In my father's generation). And the numerous records shops, which opened. And the trading scene as well as the mallcore crew owe their existence to this album. Don't forget the rest of godly South American metal scene with V8, Sepultura, etc. The songs are sung in Spanish which makes it the major difference of what was being played in England at the time. Condos_Lord translated the titles (credits to him) and here they are in English (I modified them a bit): 1) Wagon of death 2) Freedom 3) Crazy about rock & roll 4) Red baron 5) Nothing is eternal 6) Robot man 7) A child is born 8) Assassin 9) Fallen heroes 10) Arkangel The sound of the music sounds similar to NWOBHM. The biting non-heavy guitars, great solos, punk-ish drums. You can hear the bass, wow. But he mostly follows the rhythm guitar. I can't really describe the sound but I get a nostalgic feeling when you listen to this and the vocals give the music a sorta atmosphere that you are in South America. The opener, Wagon of Death, is one of the faster tracks of the album. The next track, Freedom relies on the chorus at times, which shouts "Libertad" most of the times. This is backed up by killer riffs and this track is also a high-energy track. Crazy About Rock and Roll is done in a traditional rock n' roll way, the bass has a stronger presence here in terms of leading. The biting guitar riffs are gone for rock chords that are found in 50's/60's rock which probably shows the band paying tribute to their rock influences. Red Baron resumes the metal. Nothing is Eternal is a groovy track and probably my favourite song here. The vocals here are are not as aggressive and give that nostalgic feeling that I talked about a while ago. The next track, Robot Man slows things down with some doom metal influences. A child is born is quite mid-paced but you get a surprise of high energy metal at the end of the track. Probably the fastest song here (when it reaches the fast part). You actually appreciate the fast sections. (which are constant in thrash metal). Assassin is a pretty short speedster. Fallen Heroes gives a spoken section and some metal. Last but not least is the instrumental which features some killer riffs. The soloing of this entire album is also memorable, they are done in the traditional metal vein. This album is the best damn thing Gillman has done. What makes Arkangel deserve 100% is that they stand out from the rest in South America in terms of sound and influence and it stands as one of the best Traditional metal albums of all time. I'm sure little people know of them outside South America. Hails to Gezol for having a picture of this record in his room. I hafta find that picture. The album art is well done too. You should get this if you like NWOBMH or are a South American metalhead. |
| ¿Será por la pinta? ¿Será por el pelo? - 100% |
| Written by Condor_Lord
on April 17th, 2005
|
| It's hard to believe this was recorded in 1981: at the same time the NWOBHM was raging and starting to deliver it's first recordings, the same year Barón Rojo gave the world the ever lasting classic Larga Vida al Rock N' Roll, five guys from Venezuela, overcoming all the frontiers that have always existed to do fine metal in South America, delivered one of the greatest traditional metal pieces ever made. A perfect 100% for this timeless perfect jewel. Arkángel's debut album marks the beginning of one of the finest moments of the world of metal, although it has been kind of ignored by the rest of the world -still, anyone who has seen those funny Gezol pics of the Metalucifer days in his home, has seen this record's sleeve on his wall... on the other side of the globe-, the traditional South American heavy metal movement. The beginning of the 80's was marked by the rise of the genre in the continent, but it was not a blind reproduction of what was going on in England, it was an autoctonous movement that depicted the reality of the South American youth and delivered it's primal aggression in the form of fast and energetic heavy metal. The aggression of V8, the epicness of Resistencia, the poetry of Kraken and, of course, the energy of Arkángel. This album is filled with fast tunes that showed a heavy metal progression, different from what happened in the UK: while the NWOBHM tended to "fast up" thanks to punk elements, Arkángel's debut album seems to be powered by the likes of Deep Purple and some espontaneus local creations. Such situation can be noticed in tracks as Libertad (Freedom) and the almighty Asesino (Murderer), the greatest track on the album, powered by a main riff of pure South American style. There was also strong riffing, as in Barón Rojo (Red Baron), a track that experiments with an identity between the rythm section and the melody to then open for the vocal lines to explode in a literal machine gun discharge... a headbanging classic for sure. But there were other elements extracted from the likes of Black Sabbath and early doom metal, cause the slow pounding epics are here as well. Tracks like Hombre Robot (Robot man), Nada es eterno (Nothing is eternal) and Heroes Caídos (Fallen Heroes) are perfect examples of this vein of the album, where the vocal line of Paul Gillman takes over the songs and leads them with the strong passion he has always delivered with his pipes, setting a perfect mood between the lyrical anguish of topics as the technological inhumanization and the tragical existentialist view of death. Un niño nace (a child is born), moving slowly from the punding sound to the fast one (which is, by the way, the darkest and creepiest moment in the record), is a great experiment in this album, removing the frontiers between doom metal and traditional fast heavy metal. And between this two main veins of the album, we found two perfetcly independent tracks that are the icing of the cake: Loco por el Rock N' Roll (Crazy about Rock N' Roll) and Arkángel. Both of them are mood setters in this album: the first one is a juvenile rocker that fits pretty well for the audience it was originally directed in the 80's and the second one is an instrumental outro that gives calm to all the energy previously released (it could be perfectly compared with Judas Priest's Caviar and Meths if it had been longer, as originally intended). As for musical technic issues, this album doesn't fail in any field: a strong rythm section with a pounding and always scalating bassline and a very high quality drumming -specially noticeable in the fast tracks-, awesome riffs with the characters already mentioned, strong solos that don't fall in guitar masturbation sessions but actually stay in the song's mood and, of course, the pipes... the so incredible pipes that lead the whole album. The production, overall, as expected, isn't the best, but it proves to be competent enough for this master piece. Lyrically, this album deals with tale telling to a wide extent, Barón Rojo and Asesino being the best examples, without falling in the sole pretension of narration but actually providing passion and content through it. It also experiments openly with deeper subjects as in Nada es eterno and Vagón de la Muerte (Death's Wagon), or through symbols, as in Hombre Robot or Un niño nace. And, of course, you can count as well with the juvenile rebellious side of things in the lyrics of Héroes Caídos and Loco por el Rock N' Roll. A true all time classic for all metalheads on Earth. |