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Urgehal – Goatcraft Torment

urgehal – goatcraft torment

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I have to say I haven’t been much into this band before, but after their show with Shining a little earlier they convinced me. Urgehal is one of the very few Norwegian black metal bands that actually fits in the term ‘True Norwegian Black Metal’ and hold all the true values of raw black metal high. Unlike many of the originators of that same term. Even a band like Gorgoroth, the only band that is said to be the only band left from what once was the Norwegian black metal movement, is not able to come up with anything this impressive…

This is already the bands’ fifth album and a natural progression is easily heard throughout their whole discography and it is almost needless to say that this “Goatcraft Torment” is their best effort so far. Their hypnotising kind of raw black metal has been perfected and formed into the best imaginable formula. Slow dragging and filthy black metal in the best mid-tempo tradition with some exceptional blistering blasting tempo changes. “Risus Sardonius” is maybe the most typical song of the album and can best be described as Darkthrone’s “In The Shadow Of The Horns” from their “A Blaze In The Northern Sky” effort with the production and fierceness of their recent “The Cult Is Alive”-album. Not a bad description/compliment and it was honestly earned through hard labour and total dedication to the secrets of the black arts. My black metal pick of the year so far! (FelixS)

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No doubt many of you Black Metal enthusiasts out there have heard the name Urgehal screamed out in a plethora of underground fanzines over the last decade or so. Formed in 1992 the band have spawned 2 demos and 4 albums of underground acclaim gaining themselves a healthy fan base in the process. Staying true to the cause playing simplistic and chaotic Norwegian Black Metal, new album ‘Goatcraft Torment’ proves to be a worthy addition to their back catalogue. Reeking of Darkthrone and with enough clichés ( how can you not be impressed with song titles like ‘Satanic Black Metal In Hell’) to please old school fans the world over, Urgehal have created something here that, put simply, fucking kills.

A beefy production backs up the unbelievably tight playing keeping things nice and raw where everything, including the bass, can be heard in all their blasphemous glory. The razor-sharp riffs flow thick and fast over the albums 10 tracks, each memorable in their own right making this, after Gorgoroth’s latest of course, a fine example of Norwegian Black Metal in its purest, most aggressive form. Although you will have heard all this a million times before, it’s the professional and passionate execution of tracks such as the punked-up ‘Antireligiøs’ and ‘Gathered Under The Horns’ that make this stand on its own two cloven hooves. Great material, great playing, great packaging just basically a great fucking album, this is, as vocalist Trondr Nefast proudly states at the start of the opening title-track, ‘satanic Black Metal’ at its fiercest and its best. (Dave Waite)

Agonia Records

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