Triumph - Retaliation Warfare

Triumph

Retaliation Warfare

by Giovanni AC at 25 May 2022, 7:52 PM

I must confess that before listening to a band I don't know I look for some info on the internet. In the case of TRIUMPH, I see that they are a one-man band, and their style is between Black and Death Metal so I had an idea of what to expect. And indeed, that's what I found in Retaliation Warfare. This is TRIUMPH´s second full length, which was released two years after Edict of Iron Ascendancy, TRIUMPH´s 2020 debut album. In this case, we find that Retaliation Warfare features eight tracks that exude brutality and pure violence during its 35-minute running time.

A conclusion we can arrive at as soon as we finish listening to the album for the first time is that there is no doubt Immolater's intention is to canalize fury, hate and contempt, and he succeeds. With frenetic rhythms marked by drums, guitar and a voice that fits perfectly to the genre Retaliation Warfare shares his fury without letting us breathe for a second. From this point of view, the album succeeds immensely. However, when I said that I knew what to expect listening to a one-man band I meant that, unfortunately, is quite common to listen works that sound very similar to each other… As if instead of Black Metal the genre of the album was One-Man-Band.

I don't want to be unfair to Immolater. I think musically they have a lot potential and there is no doubt that they have power and brutality to offer. My point is that I was faced with eight songs that sounded practically the same. It is difficult to perceive how exactly "Oblivion Barrage" differs from "Inexorable Force", or "Conquer Or Succumb". All of them show a great brutality but they also do it in a very similar way to each other. In my opinion "Sigil Conflagration" is the song I liked the most, due to some variations that make the song stand out more clearly from the rest. The last song, "Affliction Storm", also breaks the mould of the last few songs a bit by tending more towards Death than Black Metal.

Songwriting: 6
Musicianship: 6
Memorability: 4
Production: 5