A couple of 7” records from the ever interesting Boris Records winged their way to us recently. The first of these delivers some good old goat worship just the way we like it courtesy of USBM outfit Hellgoat. The band hail from Atlanta Georgia and have been around since 2004 releasing a slew of demo’s, splits, EP’s and a couple of albums with prolific regularity. With a snake coiled around a pentagram on the cover and goat skulls and inverted crosses on the back, you get a pretty good idea that this is going to be an unholy communion of the harshest kind and it certainly does not disappoint in the slightest as the two tracks set up to brutalise.
However a) side ‘Demonic Worship Of The Horned Beast’ does not give away its gameplay at the start. Like a snake it slowly uncoils with quiet droning sounds and an approaching beat building up somewhat ritualistically. You can almost imagine incense foully billowing as a chant summons up something unholy in the background. This arrives roaring and carnage and mass slaughter ensue with gunshots ricocheting around. A doom filled dirge and hellacious vocal roars take as further in. Then things explode in a barrage of war metal like burgeoning wrath and deliverance have finally arrived. Vocals and drums are fast and furious and this has gone from a slow Beherit like crush into a ravenous Blasphemy, Revenge fuelled assault which takes no prisoners. Surges of speed flirt with deadbeat doomy dirges over the 5 minute track giving the best of both worlds and the vokills from Amon Demogorgon are particularly impressive and beastly before Latin spoken words sinisterly lead the sermon into silence.
Luckily we have the flipside with ‘End Of Man,’ suitably starting with an exploding nuclear warhead before drums seriously pummel in. Jagged riffs and screaming vocals tear away as it layers up. The production is somewhat shrill matching the speed and there is an unhinged fury before it slows to a ghastly part with the vocals “we will see the end of man” clearly coming through. The barrage sets in again with complete destructive force, literally imploding in on itself until a bleak canvas drones out making it clear that mankind has now fallen.
This is good black destructive nihilism and the two tracks definitely left me hungering for more of the same. Give these a listen at the link below
(Pete Woods)
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