Archgoat

Reaching out from the abyss, with no goal other than the total desecration of all things Christian, Finland's Archgoat return with Heavenly Vulva (Christ's Last Rites), another document to solidify the band as one of the truest living embodiments of black metal. Only a group with so much history in the art of creating that which is unholy could birth something that possesses such terrifying authenticity. Their primitive riffs, warlike blasting and gurgling incantations have been utilized again and again by latter-day practitioners, but in the case of Archgoat, whose peers include the likes of Blasphemy and Beherit, the anti-God sentiment is genuine, backed by a lo-fi, dungeon-like production that hammers home the extremity. The simple structures of offerings like "Goddess of the Abyss of Graves" and "Passage to Millennial Darkness" bring the dark intentions of this EP into focus, proving that black and death metal's threatening power has, fortunately, not been lost to the ages.