Bondage Goat Zombie - Belphegor

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Bondage Goat Zombie isn't the most original album out there, but it remains well executed, varied and entertaining throughout, and is well worth a look for Nile and Anaal Nathrakh fans in particular.

Tracklisting

1. Bondage Goat Zombie 04:00
2. Stigma Diabolicum 05:01
3. Armageddon's Raid 05:07
4. Justine: Soaked In Blood 04:07
5. Sexdictator Lucifer 03:43
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With their seventh full length 'Bondage Goat Zombie', Austrian band Belphegor have opted to employ the time-honoured Dimmu Borgir method of album-naming: pick three dark-sounding words and stick them together in the hope that the result will sound all mysterious and evil. Unholy Werewolf Church. Perverted Warlock Ritual. Badger Sex Funeral. The possibilities are endless.

The album is an enjoyable exercise in blackened death metal, frequently recalling Anaal Nathrakh in its use of chaotic and acerbic passages of furious black metal riffing complete with tight and overly melodic choruses, frequently merging this with middle-eastern scales and murky and majestic death metal passages very much in the vein of Nile. The songs are pretty varied: 'Justine Soaked In Blood ' recalls the eclectic, chugging grooves of Akercocke in places whilst 'Armageddon's Raid' slots a gothic doom riff that could be from a latter day My Dying Bride album in around its clattering black/death metal frame.

Elsewhere there are (somewhat incongruous sounding) Spanish guitar passages and even the odd bluesy solo, and the album is packed full of excellent, catchy riffs, enjoyable solos and satisfying passages of blasting from start to finish, although the songwriting, whist more than competent, still leaves room for improvement. The atmosphere is further embellished by all the usual accompaniments; samples of tolling bells; female moans of sexual ecstasy; bellowed/screamed (yet in this case generally intelligible) vocals, blasphemous and perverted lyrics, frequent cries of "HAIL SATAN" and so on, and its a consistently entertaining listen, although there's nothing really here that I haven't heard before elsewhere.

It has quite a cartoony feel to it too: whereas Akercocke manage to make their music sound serious and genuinely atmospheric despite its incredibly dramatic and over the top nature, Belphegor instead sound a little one dimensional and somewhat daft, something not helped by the cringeworthy attempt at crooned clean vocals that crops up towards the end of the album. Should further confirmation of the band's seemingly unintentional silliness be needed, when I saw them supporting Nile and Grave last year the singer pulled on a studded leather gimp mask mid-set and bellowed "F*CK THE CHURCH", before the band ripped into this album's title track. They put on a fantastic show though, and the album is a great listen, but is perhaps best enjoyed when not taken too seriously . The heavily photoshopped artwork is equally over the top, consisting of skimpily clad nuns in gasmasks and the like, and like the music feels a little derivative, but it does the job nicely enough.

Bondage Goat Zombie isn't the most original album out there, but it remains well executed, varied and entertaining throughout, and is well worth a look for Nile and Anaal Nathrakh fans in particular.

Tracklisting

1. Bondage Goat Zombie 04:00
2. Stigma Diabolicum 05:01
3. Armageddon's Raid 05:07
4. Justine: Soaked In Blood 04:07
5. Sexdictator Lucifer 03:43
6. Shred For Sathan 03:47
7. Chronicles Of Crime 05:32
8. The Sukkubus Lustrate 02:56
9. Der Rutenmarsch 05:32

Total playing time 39:44

Summary: Solid and enjoyable blackened death metal 

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