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Tales of Desecration (1992)
In 1992, Angelcunt (Tales of Desecration) was spewed forth by Finland's
Archgoat. The overall sound is quite similar to old Beherit, and it shares the aforementioned band's influences, to an extent,
owing much more to the Brazilian black/death scene of the mid to late 80s; bands such as Sarcofago, Sepultura, Vulcano and
Holocausto as opposed to Venom or Bathory.
Musically, some may get the sense that there is an influence from death, yet this
is Finnish black metal. Despite the vocals being a bit deeper than those utilized by many of their contemporaries, the atmosphere
is dark and occult. The fast, grinding parts aren't expecially interesting; however, it is during the slower, doom-filled
sections where the band seems to shine. The intro is neither good nor bad, rather it is simply there. The opener, "Rise of
the Black Moon", sets the pace for the entire release, which is quite brief. As the E.P. continues, "Death and Necromancy"
sticks to this formula, while also incorporating a nice guitar solo. At just over three minutes, this is actually the longest
song on here.
"Soulflay" begins with a very good doom riff, though the song quickly returns to
the fast and generic-sounding riffs that are found all over. There is a short section that includes some sort of organ, but
it passes far too quickly. "Black Messiah" carries on with more mediocre riffs, with ephemeral slow parts, almost similar
to Immolation. The music isn't bad. It's just kind of there. It could have been quite a bit better, had they put forth the
time and energy to really work on the songs. The only feeling of any kind is during the slow riffs. The fast riffs are pointless
and bereft of any evil feeling. It is as if the guitars are there only to make background noise for the vocals to bark out
over. This is where the death metal influence is most prevalent. Both "Jesus Spawn" and the outro are entirely pointless.
This brief E.P. would have served the band better by being even shorter. This is vastly inferior to the output from other
Finnish bands, such as Beherit or Impaled Nazarene. Once you have heard "Rise of the Black Moon", you have heard enough to
get the general idea behind Archgoat.
(8 Mar. 2009)
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