Time Signature Blessed metal...

Genre: raw blackened-death metal

A dark gift to the world, Archgoat's mini album Heavenly Vulva (Christ's Last Rites) is a collection of raw blackened death metal tracks, combining the filth of raw black metal with the brutality of primitive death metal. And, the music itself is actually pretty good if you dig primitive and brutal death metal, built on heavy and, at times, sludgy riffage as well as chaotic grinding passages with pounding blastbeats and almost punky guitar parts.

The music is actually pretty good. It is aggressive, dark and brutal and full of the primitive energies of raw black metal and raw death metal and is an example of true extreme music. Unfortunately, the vocals do not appeal to me at all. They are growled and guttural, appearing to have been enhanced further with some sort of effects to come across even more deep and guttural (much like in certain types of grindcore), and, to my ears, this actually disturbs the music to the point that the vocals annoys me.

The music on this release is brilliantly primitive and brutal, and the raw lo-fi production suits it perfectly. Any fan of old school grindcore, raw black metal, raw death metal and blackened death metal should check out this mini album.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)