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Belphegor
“Bondage Goat Zombie”
(Nuclear Blast)

Named after an infamous demon (well, it would hardly be one of the band’s mothers would it?), Austria’s Belphegor are one of the ancient ones taking root in the early days of black metal. Arguably eclipsed by the Scandinavian scene for the best part of the next 10 years, I’m pleased that Belphegor’s time had finally come. With so much time to ponder, Belphegor have had enough time to ponder (and practice) and get it right and the 9 tracks on “Bondage Goat Zombie” - their seventh album - attest to that. Whilst their black souls are blackest metal, there’s plenty of variety with the lyrics being sung in English, German and Latin. Even more so is the music with Hellmuth’s vocals varying from deep drawls to screeching, varying speeds of the music to the occasion use of melody. But rest assured, Belphegor, like Marduk, have read the evil book of macabre riffs and have carefully structured each of their songs to produce the most diabolically perverse - complete with whipping on ‘Der Rutenmarsch’ heh heh - and evil atmosphere on this concept album based on the Marquis de Sade. Ironically, being stuck in a rut for 10 years has given Belphegor their selling point as the original Scandinavians have all moved on musically, allowing this caged beast to be unleashed upon us all. And we’ll lap it up by the trough load.

-Shan Siva