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ARBOGAST
I
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Vintage amps pushed to the max. Screaming guitar melodies layered over distorted bass chords. An incessant, pummeling drum attack. Sludge breakdowns, over the top blast-beats. An infusion of classic thrash, metal and punk topped off with a dual vocal assault. The result: a sound that offers no rest, no retreat. It is the furious release of a caged beast.
Based in Chicago, IL Arbogast played their first show on a frigid evening in February 2009 at the Metal Shaker with Aseethe and Shores of the Tundra. Arbogast has maintained momentum playing numerous shows and sharing the stage with bands including East of the Wall, Bison BC, Gates of Slumber, Czar, Look What I Did, Across Tundras, Name, Tidal Arms and Admiral Browning.
"Most likely, this band derives its namesake from the Roman general Flavius Arbogastes, aka Arbogast (said to have been birthed in barbarian lands), since their debut full-length I sounds like an entire garrison thrust into the heat of battle, complete with clanking shields, hacked-off limbs and bloodthirsty bellowing." - Blabbermouth.net "Seriously, how is this band not already signed, touring with (and blowing away) the likes of High on Fire and The Sword? The world is a cruel and unjust place..." – Decibel "…complex, engagingly brainy metal, driven by righteous political fury—the band reserves a special place in Hades for the rich and exploitative—and leavened with quiet, clean breaks whose breathing room really just sets up the next charge of jackhammer force." - Chicago Reader "It doesn't usually help quoting a press release name-dropping bands the Chicago-based Arbogast played with, but in this case an exception can be made. Why? Because doing so could shed a light on the diversity of styles the band incorporate on their debut, on the masterful way with which the various strands are weaved into a complex yet cohesive metal thing, and also hint towards a certain density that is occasionally overbearing, impenetrable and disengaging; Bison BC, Gates of Slumber, Across Tundras, Goes Cube, Tidal Arms. Confused? Okay, then imagine At The Drive In meets Mastodon. But not yet as amazing as what that might sound like when their full potential is realised." - Terrorizer "Arbogast introduces themselves with a record that harkens back to an age when metal, punk, and post-hardcore all lived comfortably together. Their debut album, I , is an excellent effort, and deserves much more recognition than it will get for now." - SSGmusic "…successfully fuses the well-deep riffing of doom metal with the head-banging aggression of thrash and hardcore punk, a blend it manages successfully across the record’s 11 tracks." - The Onion’s A.V. Club Those of you not fluent in Italian can refer to the mediocre translations of this awesome review provided by Bing and Google. "Divagazioni a base di sludge/doom impregnato di groove e di furia hardcore, contaminato da prog, noise e dissonanze post-metal/post-rock, caratterizzano un po’ l’ossatura del suono degli Arbogast, sulla quale poi si innesta tutto il resto, con delle variazioni di tempo frenetiche. Perciò, per vari motivi, gli Arbogast mi hanno fatto venire in mente band un po’ diverse tra loro: Mastodon, Kylesa, 16, Ken Mode, Red Fang, Neurosis, D.R.I e Unsane. I generi esplorati da questo trio così versatile, quindi, sono innumerevoli. Due cose però non cambiano mai: la tensione e la potenza del suono, foraggiate da una chitarra urlante, da vibrazioni di un basso iper-distorto, dalla frenesia sincopata della batteria e dall’aggressività della doppia sezione vocale." - The New Noise "A band with a black metal-y name that sounds like early Refused with a shot of sludge — That describes this Chicago trio on their debut LP." - MetalSucks "Tremolo guitars grapple with hard-hit drums as the battle rages on between the classes. Each song sets a scene so effectively you’d think the concept album was meant for a film." - Mxdwn "Arbogast have released a stunning and outstanding album that should hopefully propel them amongst the elite of Sludge Metal as they have some major fucking talent that deserves to be heard on a bigger stage as possible." - Sludgelord "The crafting of arbogast’s songs is brilliant, continuously and repeatedly slamming their audience in the face with hard-hitting rhythms and driving guitar riffs." - DOA "The wall of angry guitars, hammered drums, and shouted vocals that explode before us makes this band increasingly hard to categorize. Good. Bands that make music by the numbers are nothing less than boring. Arbogast are all versatile musicians and they work well together to create a tight and focused unit. What’s evident is that they listen to each other and respond to what they’re playing and so the songs evolution is inherent in the final version and much more potent. The sludge and doom passages blend seamlessly with the fast-paced thrash and all-out hardcore/punk feel to the tracks, while the melodic aspect of the band shines through and drags the listener into the maelstrom. Throwing together such disparate sounds poses a serious risk for a lot of bands, to which many fall foul, and this could have easily been a mess. But Arbogast make it all work. And very well. This is a solid début and well worth checking out." - The Midlands Rocks "As the album progresses, the difficulty in really putting Arbogast into a particular genre becomes evident as I presents a melting pot full of different influences, from the sludgy, doom-paced segments that the band tends to go into, to the energetic, fast-paced thrashy segments that are on tracks like Unnamed Guns that even brings in a slight Bay Area thrash sound to the mix. The band also does not leave out the melodic side of their songwriting, with each of the tracks’ melodies evoking different emotions in the listener, from completely desolation on Blastamous to a perceived shimmer of hope on Unnamed Guns." - Heavy Metal Tribune "This Chicago clan mixes elements of Post Hardcore, Sludge Doom and Thrash into a sound that is close to something if Neurosis and Crowbar collabed together working on songs that would have been planned out for a future Surgery or Jesus Lizard album." - Absolute Zero Media