Triumpher - Spirit Invictus (2024)

3★

After their 2023 album, Storming the Walls, was met with fairly positive fanfare, Greece's mighty TRIUMPHER have returned with their new album, Spirit Invictus.

A continuation on their sound of extreme metal fused with Manowarian epic trad, TRIUMPHER have doubled down, with chuggy riffs, commanding vocals, and thunderous rhythm work. The problem? It's just not all that interesting. Such is the case with many new epic metal bands, they try to expand on a sound that's A.) either already been done but better or B.) doesn't need to be expanded upon. TRIUMPHER unfortunately fall into the trap of wanting to blend extreme metal with trad, which is a very, very delicate balance and often falls flat when attempted... and as we've seen, well, they definitely could have done it better.

All in all, it's musically decent. The riffs and rhythm work is derivative but the solos have lots of cool inflections and melody that keep them interesting. But like we've said in other reviews, a good album with poor lead guitar work is infinitely better than a boring album with fantastic lead guitar work. The vocals are also very good, but with all the extreme influences, it just doesn't quite mesh with everything else at play here.

If you're a fan of this kind of music, give this one a go, but don't expect it to enter your mental count of Greatest Epic Metal Albums.

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FAVORITE TRACKS: “Athena (1st Chapter),” “Spirit Invictus,” "Triumpher"

FOR FANS OF: Manowar, Virgin Steele, Phaëthon

Encyclopædia Metallum

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