Armagh - Exclamation Po!nt - CD

Poland’s hard-hitting blackened HEAVY METAL act Armagh is back with the 3rd album. FIRST WAVE ONLY!

Formed in 2012, ARMAGH are a heavy metal force based in Satanic City Warsaw and Necropolis Navis. Mixing classic heavy metal from the '70s and '80s with proto-black metal, ARMAGH are the creators of First Wave Only movement, which unites several Polish bands delivering old-school metal – among them, labelmates GALLOWER and SEXMAG but also Torpor, Wielki Mrok, and R.I.P. – with primal severity in their sound and message.

Truly, ARMAGH are a maniac maniac’s band, idiosyncratic mainlining such noble influences as Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Motörhead, KISS, Manilla Road, early Slayer and Megadeth, W.A.S.P, Bathory, Dissection, Running Wild, KAT, and the NWOBHM in general into something authentically rustic and effortlessly unique. But it was their second album, Serpent Storm – originally self-released in 2022, but then released on vinyl the next year by DYING VICTIMS – where they had their breakout moment. A true record collector’s record, Serpent Storm displayed its power and personality at every turn, coming from an alien place – one where Battle Cry, Another Perfect Day, Haunting the Chapel, Chinatown, Under the Sign of the Black Mark, and Born Again all simultaneously play in perfect, hellish harmony – but evincing a wild and weird but never belabored alchemy that was simply peerless.

Now, two years later, ARMAGH stir up their cauldron once again with their third album, Exclamation Po!nt. This record features a wholly reconstructed lineup, with founding frontman/guitarist Galin Soulreaper now joined by fellow guitarist Vikk Vandall, bassist Tom CultCommander, and drummer Al Atom Smasher. As such, it’s a far more collaborative effort than the largely Soulripper-written Serpent Storm, with each new member adding their own fiery flair to an altogether less-immediate but much-more-mysterious album: Tom CultCommander’s spacey & hypnotic bass work (a Hawkwind influence is detectable across the record, as is a faint whiff of Rush), Vandall’s impulsive & spring-loaded leads, and the jazzy, Bill Ward-esque drumming of Atom Smasher. Less is indeed MORE here!

Just as wild and weird as its mighty predecessor but perhaps eating subtler, sweeter fruits, the deliberately demonstrative Exclamation Po!nt dives deeply into moodier and mustier waters, sounding impossibly older than even Serpent Storm. It’s all unmistakably ARMAGH, but if LP#3 proves anything (and loudly), it’s that these Polish maniacs are operating at the height of their powers – and, again, as a full band this time. No dynamic is too severe, no construct too off-kilter, no speed shunned: with greater emphasis on harmony vocals and Soulreaper’s lonely-warlock tones guiding the listener into a misty, mystical wonder-world, Exclamation Po!nt weaves a plaintive-yet-powerful spell that traverses the whole spectrum of human experience. And perhaps it’s there that ARMAGH in general and Exclamation Po!nt in particular excels – that it’s undeniably human in construction and execution, but its journey (and destination) is otherworldly to the splendorous extreme. Or, cutting out the fancy words, what we have here is heartfelt, handmade heavy metal: no modern, no trends, no way!

No longer the “sleeper hit of the year,” ARMAGH are prepared to punctuate “best of 2024” conversations already with Exclamation Po!nt!