ALBUM REVIEW: Realm of Eternal Night – Argesk

Formed back in late 2017, and featuring some of the most prolific musicians within the UK’s vibrant black metal underground, ARGESK have quickly begun to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with, not just in their native Manchester, but across the UK. Taking inspirations from symphonic black metal luminaries such as HECATE ENTHRONED and early CRADLE OF FILTH, ARGESK have set themselves apart with their heady musical mix and a string of excellent live shows. Their long awaited debut album, Realm of Eternal Night, proves to have been well worth the wait, standing as one of the more impressive symphonic black metal records to see the light of day in recent years.

This album starts with Spellbound by Candlelight, a short, atmospheric piece centred around a haunting keyboard motif that sets a sombre, sublime tone for the rest of the album, acting as the calm before the storm. Lord of the Boundless Void kicks off the album proper with a soaring, melodic slab of symphonic black metal which sees epic keyboards and razor sharp guitars intertwine, creating a dark sound right off the bat. The hellish, bellicose vocals provide a sharp contrast with the rest of the music, injecting this song with a wide range of dense gutturals, shrill shrieks and sonorous clean passages, giving this whole song an immersive, beguiling sound.

Realm of Eternal Night provides a fast, rhythmic assault that makes full use of energised drums and huge guitars, and a propensity for gutturals, to craft a much heavier sound, with the keys being noticeably more subdued, giving this an aggressive and intense feel. Adversary takes the formula of the previous offering and expands on it, with the music taking on a visceral, powerful edge, with a thicker guitar tone and more chaotic drums acting as the driving force for this particular track. The vocals, likewise, are venom soaked and imbued with a sense of urgency, with bombastic clean sections providing a stark counterpoint that give this songs climactic moments a much more epic bent. In Their Image, a much more mid-paced affair than the tracks that have preceded it, starts to see the keyboards take a more prominent role in the mix. The interchange between Matt IH and Leth‘s vocals works incredibly well, once again utilising a wide range of vocal deliveries to give this song a very dramatic sound. This song also sees the guitar sound begin to expand even further, with less distortion at certain moments, and plenty of slick, catchy melodies which makes for an eclectic, atmosphere drenched sound.

Liberari in Tenebrae, a mainstay of the ARGESK‘s live shows, sounds just as good on record, with sharp, dancing guitars, punishing percussive blasts and vast keyboards giving this a bombastic, cavernous sound that it’s hard not love straight away. There’s plenty of imaginative musicianship on display, making for an extremely engrossing and memorable slab of black metal. Drowned in Freezing Waters, another long established fan favourite, is the prefect way to bring this record to a close. Tight guitar hooks and precise, thunderous drumming give this song a huge, powerful sound, with the vocals adding an acerbic, harrowing quality to the music. The tracks second half, which takes some musical cues from darkwave and goth, prove to be an extremely good element that grabs the listeners attention once more, making the albums final moments just as fantastic as the ones that it opened on.

Realm of Eternal Night is an album that wears its influences proudly on its sleeve, whilst adding their own stamp to this well established style. It’s got a very old-school symphonic black metal sound to it, a great style of music that many bands rarely even attempt to play in, let alone master as ARGESK have. They do this whilst peppering the music with subtle hints of goth, darkwave and death metal which give this a varied and immersive sound that it’s hard not to love. This is, above all, an album that showcases a band that already seem to have perfected their sound, laying some strong foundations on which to build an impressive musical legacy, setting a lofty bar right out of the gate for their future albums to surpass.

Rating: 9/10

Realm of Eternal Night is set for release April 17th via Clobber Records. 

Like ARGESK on Facebook.