ALBUM REVIEW: Archgoat – Worship The Eternal Darkness

Finnish Blackened Death Metal primogenitors ARCHGOAT return with their 5th full length album, due for release via Debemur Morti Productions on November 26th.

Ambient soundscapes begin our journey with the familiar sounds of demonic voices, orgasms and goats, a sentence that will make perfect sense to fans of this music and maybe alienate others, which is fine. Those christ-hammering drums launch right into a bestial onslaught of diabolic Metal with violent riffing and snarling vocals to complete the power-trios formidable sound in all of its linear, regressive glory. Primitive blasphemous warfare fills the air with the familiar sound of Archgoat’s inimitable storm of chaos, truly a monstrous cacophony to behold with its dense production. Continuing from its predecessor in the use of some subtle ambience to accentuate the more atmospheric side of their barbarism, there is an undeniably foreboding darkness present on this record that seeps into the grinding violence to add nuance without weakening the bludgeoning brutality at hand. These subtleties make it certain that the demonic hordes will salivate at the sheer savagery of this new Archgoat material while offering a mature and refined denomination of their profane malice.

The punitive inflictions of this particular band should be familiar to all serious Black and Death Metal fiends as they have always stayed stoic in representing only their own defamations of Christ and proclamations of Satanic might and not following any trends since their inception in 1989. Sheer integrity and passionate execution has carried this band for decades and will for an eternity with their simplistic, bombastic and yet stripped-back onslaught of bestial carnage that is unapologetic and true to the old ways which the band played part in shaping. “Rats Pray God” is the wild card here which sits in the centre of the album (track 6 of 10) and offering some traditional Heavy / Speed Metal glory to the warlike ferocity of the album injects a real adrenaline into the occult journey of the record but keeping that sacred black flame in the heart of the music that ends up giving us something, dare I say, epic. Of course the malignant vitriol of the album is not lost, this piece just stood out as a bold and successful oddity on the record that will surely catch many by surprise, something many bands whom have existed so long fail to achieve to such grand effect.

As we venture further into the pits of hell, the familiar vocals give way to a more incantation-like howl amidst the demonic snarls and growls which perfectly suits the slower moving riffs as they crawl between the pews, setting ablaze all that is light. The rhythm is more akin to a march than being “groovy” while the maniacal warfare of whammy dives, blast beats and tremolo picked riffs are never far away to deliver a bout of rampaging and feral freneticism. This formula has always worked for Archgoat and while they never reinvent their sound, they do always seem to move in a way that honours the past efforts while keeping the volatile spirit of the music from becoming dull or softened over the years, owing to their reliability both on record and on stage which shows the pact both in blood and spirit is absolute and their vision shall not stray from its unholy path.

The aeon of angel-slaying darkness continues in full force. A triumphant call to arms from this entity of spiritual and temporal blasphemy. Pure impious terror from start to end that prowls in the darkness and conjures a punishing storm of hellfire upon all that is holy.