ARCHGOAT — Whore of Bethlehem (review)

ARCHGOAT — Whore of Bethlehem album cover Album · 2006 · War Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
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.
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DefeatedWorld wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Buah, this album is a bomb to my ears.

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