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August 28, 2008 |
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01. Belphegor - Hell's Ambassador
02. Seyn Todt In Schwartz
03. Angel Of Retribution
04. Chants For The Devil 1533
05. Pest Teufel Apokalypse
06. The Ancient Enemy
07. Bluhtsturm Erotika
08. Sanctus Perversum
09. Das Pesthaus / Miasma Epilog
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"Pestapokalypse VI" is the newest release from Austria's BELPHEGOR. BELPHEGOR play Death/Black Metal. Attach any number of adjectives ("Epic", "Brutal", "Gorenormous Blaspheme" etc.) to that genre tag as you wish. It's not bad; technically proficient, well produced, some good vocals and riffs. "Chants for The Devil" and "The Ancient Enemy" are standouts, with some Black Metal tinges like EMPEROR-esque Black-Clouds-Sweeping-over-Castle-Greyskull riffs and high-end kitchen-witch vocals. "Pest Teufel Apokalypse" has a good bass line towards the end, and "Bluhtsturm Erotika" is a good mid-tempo Blackened Death Metal number with a strange chorus (sung in German).
Though a fairly solid release, I would only suggest it to those who eat, breath, sleep, and kill for this kind of music. Y'know, the kind of person who thinks CANNIBAL CORPSE just isn't gore enough or refer to OBITUARY as "light reading". Bands like BELPHEGOR are akin to the latest wave of Pseudo Grindhouse horror that’s been splattering across movie screens for the last three years. It has all the elements, it even has the right idea, but there is something about the execution of it all that just makes you go "Meh" when it's all over.
I mean sure, it's heavy and blasphemous and all that jizz, but it's just adhering to a style and routine and scraping the bottom of the barrel beyond the rust and into nothing. There are enough bands singing about this kind of stuff, looking like this, etc, and more bands need to try and come up with fresh spins on this material, if not abandon it all together.
BELPHEGOR has the chops, and clearly has an understanding and a love for the genre, though. They just need try and make their interpretation of it slightly more fresh.
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