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OTARGOS
Apex Terror

Listenable (2013)
Rating: 6/10

As soon as the drums of J.H. Thyr kicks in you know you’re in for a black metal treat with Apex Terror, the fifth full-length opus from French combo Otargos. For me this nine-track release is about all those punchy drums; forget the vocals of U.W. Dagoth, forget the white hot guitar sound – just focus on those skins, great stuff indeed.

That’s not to say of course that any other instrument on this opus is inferior, but J.H. Thyr really gives the album another dimension as he pounds and rattles his way through opening title track. Migraines have never been so pleasing!

Otargos – an interesting moniker of an interesting band – are the sort of anti-religious lunatics you’d want on your side in any war, seething vocally and angst-ridden in those steely, raging guitars. I’m still more of the opinion that the instruments are more interesting individually than as of being a unit. After all, in today’s climate it’s difficult to be innovative, especially in the blackened death / thrash scene.

But like so many bands of this ilk, Otargos benefit from their experimental slower passages, such as on the emissions of ‘Fleshless-Deathless’ and the initial stirring of ‘Aftermath Hyperion’. The band provides an ominous chug throughout, until those discoloured passages seep in with the grey guitars. The melodies are also of intrigue, and at times the soloing in ‘Fleshless-Deathless’ hints at a classic metal approach. While with ‘For Terra’ the outfit opt for a thrashier structure.

The whole Otargos back catalogue should be one of interest to fans of blackened thrash and doomier black metal, but with so much of this hate-filled, icy and often formulaic extreme metal, it’s difficult to differentiate some of these bands from another. For instance, the grating guitars of ‘Fallout’ means the track whizzes by as a grey haze, and the same could be said for ‘Drone’ despite its avante-garde leaning.

The aforementioned ‘Aftermath Hyperion’ pretty much sums up the sound of Otargos; one which shows potential but due to those speedy segments the outfit seem to drift along aimlessly as just another thrashing black metal band. It’s a shame, because when the slower portions are injected Apex Terror is quite a dense-sounding and forbidding record. However, it always feels as if I’m waiting for something spectacular to happen, but it never does.

Again, individually these guys are top-notch, but with a batch of albums down the line I don’t see these Frenchmen deviating from their sound which could be their overall downfall.

Neil Arnold

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