Heavy Metal Tribune

Imperious [Germany]
Varus
2011
Full Length
Heretic Visions Productions
Black Metal

Encountering bands that proclaim themselves to play "epic" metal has always left me slightly apprehensive, with pointless long song running times that usually end up making the album epic only in terms of the length of the track. Varus is Germany's Imperious' debut full length album, and happens to claim to play "epic black metal", a genre that I have come to learn to be wary of.

A spoken vocals on Prologue introduces the listener to the band's music, an obligatory move for most epic metal bands I believe and it's not long before the band begins the album proper with a melodic, almost melancholic guitar line on Publius Qunctilius Varus. The band manages to bring about the epic feel in the song as they soon break into a more aggressive section, at times almost sounding like it could come off a folk/viking metal album with the chord progression and the vocals of Sertorius, though the foundation that the band has built their music on is undoubtedly black metal.

Throughout the album, the band manages to retain some emotional elements, with the melodic lead guitar line constantly wailing at the background on some tracks, and it sounds almost as if the band built the songs around these lead guitar lines. Other times, the band choose to utilise big rhythmic melodies, such as on Segeste's Charge, with the introductory riffs sounding like a more mellow-sounding version of what bands like Amon Amarth would write. Mostly, the songs are structured such that the overarching theme revolves around an epic, melodic soundscape, punctuated by faster, chaotic moments when least expected. This helps to keep things surprising for the listener, though this could backfire on the band, with some transitions ending up sounding awkward and forced, affecting the flow of the music, like the transition from a mid-paced tempo to a doom-paced one at the beginning of Segeste's Charge. The 19-minute epic 9 A.D., Autumn is perhaps a good example of Imperious' style of music, with the numerous folk/heroic elements included and the melodious progression of the track.

However, like many other epic metal albums, the enjoyment of Varus falters in the department of the song lengths. While the song lengths that average around 8 minutes are understandable with the band's efforts in trying to bring out the epic feelings in the music, at times it seemed to drag on and on, with the songs beginning to sound repetitive towards the middle, even with a dazzling first half, and could easily cause listeners to drift off and lose focus on the music, especially on songs like The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Also, the lead guitar lines, while providing the main backing melody of some songs, could end up getting slightly irritating as well through the numerous repetition, fortunately these moments are only present on certain tracks. There are also slightly cheesy moments on tracks like Arminius, where vocalist Sertorius drags out the pronunciation of some parts of the lyrics, to a slightly humorous effect.

No doubt, Imperious has managed to capture some of the essence of epic metal through Varus, though there are times when the band seems to have indulged and focussed too much on the song lengths (perhaps unavoidable with the stories that are being told through the lyrics on the album), causing a potentially good album to be less enjoyable than it should really be, and could perhaps been more enjoyable had the band presented their art in more bite-sized chunks.

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©2012 Heavy Metal Tribune | Hong Rui