ARCHGOAT

The metal underground overlords of "kvlt" likely wouldn't bat a corpse-painted eye if you listed BEHERIT and ARCHGOAT as the 1A and 1B of Finnish blackened death metal. Sure, BEHERIT has the deeper and more storied catalog, but ARCHGOAT have the intrigue. The unfettered trio of Lord Angelslayer (bass / vocals),Ritual Butcherer (guitar) and Goat Aggressor (drums) have now stalked such unholy terrain since 1989, with an 11-year break from 1993 to 2004 that only added to their legion and mysterious nature. Since then, ARCHGOAT studio albums have arrived sporadically, including "Nightbringer, Lightbringer", the band's first since 2021's "Worship The Eternal Darkness".

Heavily imbued with deep, dungeon doom and mid-tempo riffs, ARCHGOAT do not concern themselves with speed as one would think. Instead, the band does their most damage in sinister, dark atmospheres, starting with the title track and "The Dawn To Armageddon", which offers a rare taste of melody through a streaming, cascading guitar line. In those measures, ARCHGOAT embrace simplicity with basic, repetitive power chords, further embellished by keyboards.

The guttural vocals of Lord Angelslayer are purely abyssal — a cryptic ornament that serves as a ritualistic guide through an album intended to herald a "new Satanic dawn." While there are no complaints in that department, the atonal nature of Angelslayer's vocals can be a slight drag when the pure black metal blasting of "Keys Of Hell And Of Death" starts to build into something sinister through altered chord arrangements and more melodic phrasing. As such, the spoken-word bits on "Blood Of Jesus Spilling Upon The Earth" serve as a nice touch, as do the variations found on "Iconoclasm The Nazarene", where he breaks out of the subterranean mold for something more streamlined.

Still, the titanic onslaught of album closer "Obsidian Reflection Of Anti-Light" is the sort of fist-in-the-face-of-whatever-deity-you-name that shows that more recent-era ARCHGOAT takes the cake over their 2000s and early 2010s period. The song is an (unholy) amalgamation of the ultra-cult BLASPHEMY, intermixed with a raw punk edge driving headfirst into pure headbanging bliss around the 1:52 mark.

ARCHGOAT are described by their label, the utterly fantastic Debemur Morti, as "Uncompromising, unaffected, unbowed," which, after plowing through "Nightbringer, Lightbringer", is about as accurate as it can get. There is but little compromise to be had here. ARCHGOAT can and should revel in their single-minded approach to blackened death metal for as long as they want.