This Finnish one man band lead by BlackGoat Gravedesecrator, delivers raw and ugly black metal from the burning pits of lake Bodom. This is pure evil laid on tape, made for your discomfort.

The riffs are simple, raw, noisy and very repetitive. Though they do their job, and creates an eerie evil and cold atmosphere. The drums are smashing somewhere in the middle of everything, often to much in front of the sound. Not the most interesting drum work, but again pretty simple and effective.

The vocals are the most interesting thing on this release. Together with the overall atmosphere of course, but more about that later. The vocals are screaming evil chants, spitting out bile. Filled with anger and hate, it’s easy to get caught by the passion. The album would have been rather boring, without the great and haunting vocal performance, and it adds a great deal of evilness to the overall atmosphere. An atmosphere there is cold and haunting, as the vocals. The hate is ever present and one gets caught by it very fast, it demands to get played again and again. The atmosphere is addictive and perfect to keep ones mood dark.

The production of the album is not overwhelming. The drums are more or less flowing a bit too much around in the sound picture, and are often too loud. The guitars are mostly very muddy and hidden, a bit of a shame. But overall does the sound work and is an important player, in the creation of the dark, cold and raw atmosphere.

It is not a black metal masterpiece that Goatmoon has made with this album. Though it is a fair and well crafted album, built upon will and hate, and not so much on musicianship. BlackGoat Gravedescrator hits the right atmospheres and moods, and has made a good and solid black metal album, one can enjoy in the future too.

[This review was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]