Review: Ragnarok - “Collectors of the King” (2010)
Ragnarok’s ‘Collectors of the King’ manages to overcome what has to be one of the worst intro tracks I’ve ever experienced and delivers a blackened assault worthy of the band’s Norwegian heritage. Easily one of this year’s most ferocious black metal albums, Collectors of the King is almost death metal-like in it’s suffocating bleakness and unrelenting heaviness.
Unfortunately, one other thing it shares with an awful lot of today’s death metal is a lack of variation. The songs kind of blur together after awhile, with occasional riffs here and there that stick out. ‘In Honour of Satan’ contains some pretty good riffing and rather memorable melodic lines, while ‘Ancient Crown of Glory’ moves from the usual blasting into a crushing breakdown towards the middle of the song. But really most of the album is made up of Ragnarok’s gut-ripping, full-speed-ahead black metal replete with blast beats and HansFyrste’s brutal vocal delivery. Those looking for something creative may want to look past Collectors of the King, but black metal initiates looking for a fix among 2010’s releases should know that few albums will rival this one in sheer destructive power.
