Originally written by Erik Thomas.
Synopsis:
Austria’s Belphegor have slowly become the Amon Amarth/Dismember/Bolt Thrower of their chosen goat obsessed black/death metal with seven albums of blistering if similar fury to their name and album number seven does not disappoint.
Review:
You simply don’t go into a Belphegor album looking for something new and refreshing. You go into a Belphegor album expecting to have your face ripped off by a mix of scathing black metal mixed with militaristic death metal. And goats.
Of course there is the expected minor development that comes with any album as Belphegor have injected a few more slower riffs into the fray and even a slight Middle Eastern element that comes across Immortal meets Nile or Behemoth, but the end result is still a quality album of polished ferocity that doesn’t do anything particularly different from Pestapokalypse VI or Goatreich Fleshcult, but still delivers an intense, satisfying effort.
Loosely based on the antics of The Marquis De Sade (a perfect marriage of band and concept), Bondage Goat Zombie is nine tracks of expected nasty tremolo blasts and speed that make up a majority of the album as tracks like the opening title track, “Armageddon’s Raid” and absolutely scorching “Shred for Sathan”. But injected subtly into the mix are some melodies (“Stigma Diabolicum”, “Justine Soaked In Blood”) and some stern, slower numbers (porno groaning “Sex Dictator Lucifer”, Nile–ish “Chronicles of Crime” and notably the crawling, chanting closing standout duo of “The Sukkubus Lustrate” and “Der Rutenmarsch”) that while hardly groundbreaking, do give the listener a little time to catch their breath and show Belphegor have indeed matured and evolved a little bit.
It’s all delivered with a requisite tightness and feral tenacity (as well as sexual perversion) you’d come to expect from Helmuth and co. That being said, as with all Belphegor albums there’s never really a defining or memorable moment (though “Sanctus Perversum” from Pestapokalypse VI was stunning) that burrows into your brain and makes the album a true classic. Rather Belphegor still come across as a tumbling mass of seething, snarling wolverines and that’s not really a bad thing.
