Austrian blackened death metal act Belphegor have unleashed their seventh full length studio album, Bondage Goat Zombie Yes, you are reading that title right and no, this is far from a joke, however some of the lyrics on this release could very well be considered that and leave you wondering if you didn't know of this band's existence up until this album. This furious band takes their music to a new level with adding perversion to their satanistic ways, but in the end, it's just the same old Belphegor with nothing really changed.
Upon your first listen of Bondage Goat Zombie, you will be taken by the insane guitar work and well placed blast beats. The melodic aspects brought on by the guitars, as well, will stand out in the chorus of some of the songs on here, including the title track, "Bondage Goat Zombie", which just seems to be a random satanic song with the chorus being the title of the song repeated four times. But, after that listen, the album will quickly begin to lose the shining gloss. While it isn't bad, the many flaws just seem to rear their ugly heads, as this is yet another band that follows the pattern of the traditional third wave black metal sound of constant blast beats.
While the blast beats aren't that bad at the start of the album, you'll really notice them by the time you hit "Sexdictator Lucifer", which also features some rather hysterical sound clips of a woman clearly enjoying herself during sex, with one hell of a faked orgasm right at the very end of the track. "The Sukkubus Lustrate" also features some singing, but is insanely tone deaf, as well as is louder then the shouting vocals, meaning they were probably added later on as a last minute idea for the album or something. The first four songs on this release are absolutely fantastic though, and really will stick with you due to the sheer tenacity of the music, as well as their somewhat simple and catchy song structures, and "The Sukkubus Lustrate" would shine too because of it being a rather slow paced track with ringing church bells added for ambience and really breaks up the blast beat monotony of much of the album if it weren't for the singing, but this track does bleed into the closing song "Der Rutenmarsch", which really is just "The Sukkubus Lustrate" done right.
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The limited edition version of this, as well as some overseas versions, come with a bonus DVD that includes some various bonus material such as the music video for "Bondage Goat Zombie", as well as behind the scenes stuff such as the making of the album and the video, but those clips are simply that: clips. There really isn't anything to them aside footage of the band playing or, as far as "The Whip & The Bunker" goes, footage of the vocalist in a bondage suit being recorded and whipping the ground with a whip. There is honestly no reason at all to buy this since it does absolutely nothing except show the band playing random things from the album. It also doesn't help the transition between the option selected from the main screen of the DVD takes about ten seconds to load thanks to a screen that was apparently absolutely necessary to include for artistic sakes to show the people who did the DVD can make random images from the artwork and of band members fade in and out. One thing to note is that, if you ever wanted to know how the vocalist handles the lyrics in the studio, you'll see in "Shredding Stage One" where they literally show the lyric sheets the vocalist used for two minutes, oh and let's not forget "Einmarsch" where they show random parts of random live songs as well as a good solid minute of the band making two sets of crowds chat "Oi!", and "Belphegor Maniakks" that is various metal label execs or magazine authors and whatnot saying how much they love the band. This DVD is pretty much nothing but self-worshipping garbage. |
So, with the DVD being absolute garbage, and the actual album being somewhat of a let down with only a few killer tracks, it's pointless to track down the limited edition version of this album. The first half of the album is indeed amazing, but it's tracks like "Sexdictator Lucifer" and "The Sukkubus Lustrate", that really just kill the overall feel of the album. Many of the songs will become very repetative, and quickly become rather boring. It's the more slower tracks on the release that really shine out, aside the completely absurd title track that really make no sense at all lyrically. Hopefully Belphegor will drop the perversion they felt the need to include on this album, and go back to tearing about Christianity and promoting Satan.
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