Warthur Go down that dark alleyway at the intersection of brutal death metal and lo-fi black metal and you'll get coshed over the head by the gutteral hybrid style known as war metal. Archgoat's Whore of Bethlehem is a short, sharp burst of fury, adeptly deploying the most brutal weapons in the war metal arsenal. From the subgenre's black metal heritage, you have a filthy, murky production sound which evokes a deliciously evil atmosphere; from the brutal death metal side of the family tree, you have the gutteral grunts of Lord Angelslayer and a tendency to stick to the lower end of the sonic spectrum. This is metal you might hear coming from an enemy warlord's bunker on the battlefields of World War IV.

I'm not sure I'd want much more than 35 minutes of Archgoat in one sitting, or many more albums in a similar vein, but as far as comprehensive explorations of a very niche musical style goes Whore of Bethlehem is pretty decent - though equally, this could have probably been a tight 15 minute EP and still hit most of the thematic notes.

Vehemency Many black metal bands from the 90s made a comeback during the next decade. Archgoat was one of them with their 2006 album Whore of Bethlehem, which definitely isn’t just a lazy warming-up album by old veterans. Although the band had such a big break from new releases, Whore of Bethlehem sounds still as Archgoat as possible: death / black metal mixture in an underground vein. Mixture might be a bad choice of word, though, since this band comes from a time when the line between death metal and black metal wasn’t so distinct.

Basically, what we have here is an extremely furious and filthy album. The album is produced to sound really muddy, and it fits to the death reeking atmosphere. Lord Angelslayer’s guttural low growls are almost incomprehensible, but luckily the lyrics are provided. ”Whore of Bethlehem” includes both fast and slow, sometimes even doomish, riffing which is nicely backed up by a talented drummer (who actually is the only member who’s not part of the original line-up). The wisely-thought transitions between slow and fast moments are one of Archgoat’s best elements. At times there’s even synths (”Dawn of the Black Light”) and some church bell sounds (”Black Crusade”) to create massive climaxes - and they work indeed.

Whore of Bethlehem’s style of death / black metal worship is nothing new, but it is done in such an exquisite and archgoatian way. There is absolutely zero filler material, everything is in its right place. 35 minutes is a good playing time for an album of this kind, so that it doesn’t lose its power at any time and won’t sound tedious towards the ending. Albums like Whore of Bethlehem are easily ruined by making the total playing time too long.

I’m still afraid to give full five stars as this is still fairly new album (and, well, the muddy production always COULD breathe a bit more, but it’s not a problem really), but things might change in the future. I will give this album a few more years until I’m ready to decide is it worth of full points.