Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Origin: Turku, Finland
Legendary Finnish blasphemers Archgoat return to flicker the white light of Christ with their fifth full-length effort, Worship the Eternal Darkness. Evil, majestic riffs grab the demonic torch from the closing seconds of 2018 effort, The Luciferian Crown, which hide with the spellbound listener under the covers, who risks all to find out how each spinetingler will end.
Archgoat have always excelled in fertilizing primitive fields of devil-worship with brutally loamy yet catchy licks. Opening track “Heavens Ablaze” rips through sonic waves like a Rocky Mountain wildfire, before a down-tuned lead screams across frequencies, calling all cars for the world-smashing sludge-fest dangling precariously from Archgoat‘s hook and ladder.
The atmosphere created with the backing moans and melodic solo in “Black Womb Gnosis” invokes Guns ‘N’ Roses’s “Rocket Queen” . . . only if the Queen of Ecstasy were bathing in Lucifer’s boudoir within the darkest recesses of Hell.
All Christianity Ends (9:00 - 14:37) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEsY4spZQzA
Standout track “All Christianity Ends” grinds everything to an excruciating anticlimax. Power chords dripping with the curdled blood of slain worshippers pulsate across the song like a wave pool filled with viscous bodily fluids. This track enraptures the intrepid listener with groaned sermons fit for the most vile of ceremonies under the dim light of the crescent moon, and peaks with a resounding chorus: Hail Satan!
Middle tracks “Rats Pray God” and “Empyrean Armageddon” soothe with enhanced sound effects at the beginning that thrust the listener into the demonic atmosphere unique to each song – a squeaking Rat King writhes through the initial moments of the former, while a roaring bonfire blisters skin across the latter.
Mid-tempo eighth track “Blessed in the Light of Lucifer” drunkenly skids and swerves across the road until supernatural chanting straightens the wheel, payin’ the dues on the highway to hell. If “Blessed…” is a two-seater convertible, title track “Worship the Eternal Darkness” is an two-ton out-of-control diesel wrecking machine. Clawing growls upend the track’s temporal asphalt, coughing up sludgy tar and churning out asynchronous leads in the place of predictable guitarwork.
Final ceremony “Burial of Creation” loosens the low E slipknot throughout the early moments of the dirge, until the pace tightens and the track snaps crisply into place. Audible axe-neck slides and taut percussion are choked off suddenly, giving way to a fleeting, eye-fluttering atmospheric outro that snuffs out the record.
Archgoat once again lures the ardent follower into their violent clandestine fantasies, the innocent listener the willing star of their diabolical plot. Worship the Eternal Darkness maintains the expected heretical sonic assault at tempos synonymous with Archgoat, but still twists the plot enough to shake the listener’s flashlight.
FFO: Inquisition, Dark Funeral, Bolt Thrower, Frozen Soul, Gatecreeper