Magnus Venator
FLOGA
Greek melodic black metallers build on past triumphs
Five years on from their early debut, Sacrilegious Testament, this Greek band of veterans’ second effort is again a robust tribute to their homeland’s idiosyncratic black metal sound. Split by instrumental segue Saturnalia Magnus Cult, Magnus Venator’s first half stands at the crossroads between cold Scandinavian motifs and Eastern melodies, with both apparent on Blood Be My Crown’s savage wrath and The Tyrant’s haunting vastness. The second half revels in regal pomp and traditional bombast that’s befitting the heroics of their country’s mythology. The stomp of Triumphant Fate lives up to its billing, while Hordes Of Oblivion’s fiendish gallop and Babylon (Sammu-Rawat)’s closing salvo are less a monument to the past and more a triumph in their own right.