Satanic Warmaster / Archgoat : 'Lux Satanae 13 Hymns of Finnish Devil Worship"

Not really the biggest fan of splits as they are rarely from two artists that I like. Since Satanic Warmaster starts things off with the blasty 'Black Destiny", They have more to prove since I already know I like Archgoat and I have really only caught these guys in passing on Last Fm. What sounds to be synths in the background offers up a little more atmosphere than what their flavor of raw Finnish black metal offers. The lyrics which like the album title suggests are thick with devil worship and more easily deciphered than you might think. 'Wolves of Blood and Iron" they are cursing the jewish creation, and I can hear that these guys are pretty passionate with what they are doing and it spills over into the blood of their music. Sonically both songs carry the same dynamics until it slows into a more majestic gallop, not in the Moonsorrow sense as this retains its rough edges. But these guys are beginning to win me over. The opening riff to cover of Pest's  'Satanic Winter" makes it sound like a circle pit is going to open up. The vocal have a more choked tone to them. On the chorus the vocals are doubled up with a lower death metal growl.

Despite the touches of ambiance in the background there is a more straight forward blast to "My Kingdom of Darkness' that I don't seem compelling until they get to the chorus where is more obvious they care about song writing more than blasting. Then it switches over to Archgoat's " Jesus Spawn", this is a more gurgled and gritty take on the genre, feeling more like death metal to me. Only gets more melodic when the solo comes into slow it for a minute before the go back into the grime ridden frontal assault. It's evident that these guys have grown as song writers , because there is just more meat to the matter on their last album. They do have more of a groove captured on "Penis Perversor" .  The dives into the solos are very Morbid Angel here. "Angelcunt' finds back at more primitive death metal state that to me  recalls Amon era Deicide. "Satanic Oath" is just a burst of an interlude before the grinding blast of "Soulfay". They continue down a similar left hand path of grim ridden gurgling this time with a little more groove to it on "Black Messiah" , but they still keep things true to their more primal earlier days.

They blast into your face like a money shot from hell with the raw explosion of "Thrice Damned Sodomizer". I listened to this song in three different sitting and it never resonated more than being a rather obtuse piece of curdled density. Their final offering and the 13th hymn is you are following along in your hymnals " Rise of the Black Moon" is a much more engaging listen that lives up to where they are now as a band and would make sense in their current live set. Overall this one caught me off guard as I was way more into Satanic Warmaster's contribution's than Archgoat's , so this can be seen as positive in the sense that it shows how much Archgoat has grown as songwriters , it also makes me want to check out Satanic Warmaster's last album. I'll round it up to a 7.  Which is the average for this album with Satanic Warmaster earning a 9 for their songs and Archgoat getting a 5.5.

Archgoat:"the Apocalyptic Triumphator"

Proving the point on I made on the Goat Semen review about the dominance of European black metal is Archgoat. This Finnish band has been spreading the unholy word since the church burning second wave of black metal in the early nineties. They have left a trail of splits and eps in their wake but this is only the band's third full length...so it's kind of a big deal. Archgoat combines the more classic metal sounds of early black metal with elements of a more grime coated flavor of death metal than some one like Mortuary Drape does, even though the two bands circle a similar sonic scope.

The album opens strong the band never numbs you out with blast beats. One element that really sets them apart is the vocals. These growls are below guttural. They are the main death metal element. A hellish sewer is funneled through Angel Slayer. Its maybe even a half step below Cannibal Corpse. This style of vocalization comes across best on "Luciferian Theopany". The spoken call to worship is even chanted down in the this register. The rasp rises from a gurgle a little into a more understandable rasp toward the end of the song.

These guys are economic in the song writing. Keeping their grim hymns round the six minute mark This is a welcome relief from the bulk of black metal bands that feel the need to have two sprawling 13 minute tracks make up the entire album. This fact is high lighted with under three minute blast fest "Congregation of the Circumcised" and the rather straight forward  "Those Below (who dwell in Hell)" even then they swing of into a more interesting course around the three and a half minute mark. The use of keyboards is sparse but dynamically effective. They haunt the edges of the songs right when needed to break things up. The band even uses a a coupe intro pieces for some ritualistic ambiance , but this is not over done either.

The album is really well produced. There is often a raw feeling to the intensity these guys attack their instruments with, but is very crisp and clear. I think purists who prefer the "necro" lo-fi sound will be willing to meet in the middle on this one since the band is so heavy and deadly serious in their delivery. The guitar tone is has an awesome crunch on the classic metal chug that opens "Sado Majical Portal". The drummer's subtle accents amid the bombastic beating his kit receives helps to inject smarts into songs that your average black metal drummer would have blast beaten past.

The closing songs "Profanator of the 1st Commandment " and "Funereal Pyre of Trinity"  find more   the roars lowering into an even more guttural of a gurgle, with the latter song being the more dynamic of the two. This raises the bar for black metal bands in 2015. It is possible to be insanely heavy with out forsaking songwriting. This album gets a 10 as it has both the brutality and attention to detail I want from my metal black or otherwise.

Deicide - In the Minds of Evil

I wonder what 16 year old me would think about this record. He loved Deicide , I'm betting  some of the grooves would have made him head bangingly happy, he would have preferred the layered vocals of the first album and the harder hitting hooks of Once Upon the Cross as this is a much more straight forward effort than either of those albums.

The title track comes in and grabs your attention like any heavy act will, the sheer intensity holds you then it's wait and see when the novelty of volume and power wears off, if they can write songs that keep you engaged. The chorus to this song is almost sung like newer Morbid Angel. It seems like a new trick for them but I gave up on the band after  Once Upon the Cross, so I couldn't tell you other wise. In fact isn't Glen Benton supposed to have already suicide sacrificed him self by now?

"Thous Begone " starts the descent into the jackhammer pummeling that is broken up by some cool gallops and solos , but pretty much gull speed ahead just like it was 1988. They have some signature punches toward the end, that remind me more of Once Upon the Cross era, than anything previous. Make no mistake about about it they are a refined and relentless death metal machine, but it paints all with a singular aggression as the only emotion accounted for.

"Godkill" does ring back the shadows of Legion to my memory banks, but is no where as catchy, and this could just as easily be Broken Hope or any other straight ahead death metal band from the 90's.  The chug a lug into "Beyond Salvation" is pretty rocking, and the syncopation of Benton's vocals do remind me of their glory days, but once it gets to the blur of what could be the chorus it all begins to sound the same.

"Misery of One" the drums are more  machine fired than actually played. The song steam rolls over it's self it has so much momentum, almost to the point of its strength and weakness are one and the same. The blastiness of "Between the Flesh and the Void" overtakes it's self. The verse after the chorus, is pretty cool, but the cool riffs alone don't make a song has to apply to Deicide as well, I think there was more passion in his vocal delivery on the first three album so they made up for the one dimensional aggression. The solos on this album are a lot more mature and polished for sure.

There are the more thrashy moments of songs like "Even the Gods Can Bleed" where the songs benefit from groove to the gallop. The lyrics which are as anti-Jehovah as ever, have room to jab at you and get their infernal message across. The thing is while I am no more Jehovah friendly than I was as a teenager, the blatant nature of the lyrics seems juvenile as picking on something as pitiful as Christianity is like kicking a cripple in this day and age.

"Trample the Cross" comes on so fast and furious that it tramples over itself, only letting the guitar melody survive atop it before going into a juggernaut riff that is of the same proportion as most of the riff on this album so its size is relative. This album is air tight on the production end and the mix is very polished so no corners were cut in the execution of this.  

All the songs get right to the point and go for the throat, clocking in around three minutes each. "Fallen to Silence"  doesn't find groove or hints of melody until the final minute. The solo in this one stands out in terms of its composition. "Kill the Light of Christ" is the only song where it sounds as if Benton is aware metal as moved onto darker things like black metal. "End the Wrath of God' the drumming starts off not a steamrolling but gets there before the chorus.  

I'll give the album a 6, as it's too straight forward for my adult taste buds these days and not on the level with the first three but a solid effort, if you like straight ahead old school death metal, that these guys are the god fathers of then around it up another point.