apanthropy

Beastgod
Black Goat Victorious
Stygian Black Hand
Released: 5/5/23
Version Reviewed: Cassette, Limited Edition of 100 copies

–
A1 – Unholy Baptism
A2 – Black Goat Victorious
A3 – Son of the Foulest Seed
A4 – Besieging the Wailing Wall
–

Sweden needs no introduction when it comes to the world of extreme music, having fathered some of the most notorious bands in both death metal and black metal starting as far back at the late 1980’s, coming from scenes in epicenters around Stockholm, Gothenburg and Boras. Still to this day, well over three decades later, the Swedish scene continues to make lethal contributions to the underground.

Beastgod, and their debut demo tape ‘Black Goat Victorious,’ continue the tradition by contributing a four-track abomination of stark, ugly, war-metal style blackened death metal in the vein of early Proclamation, Diocletian, Conqueror, and Blasphemy. Slightly over 9 minutes of material, ‘Black Goat Victorious’ is a short but pronounced exclamation from a new upstart coming from the Stockholm scene. Not much is known regarding the members of the band, as there is no history of any of the listed members linking them to any previous bands.

Opening on ‘Unholy Baptism,’ the listener is greeted with chromatically tight grinding single-note tremolo riffs that create a naturally tense sensation. Frontal barked vocals rage over top blastbeats as a dissonant solo erupts to break the established cadence. A tempo transition sets the stage for circular riffs packed within a singular octave and minimalist storming is felt through guttural emphasized downbeats towards the end of the track.

Without skipping a beat, the title track begins, an exercise in bestial purity, storming chaos, like columns of armor rolling into battle. A single note tremolo riff and thundering drums brings the song in, while the central chorus riff is a simple two chord structure, mimicking the minimalist nature of ‘Unholy Baptism.’ The song cycles its two primary narrative ideas to create a whole primitive system of a song, a verse and a chorus, a shot and a reload of sorts.

‘Son of the Foulest Seed’ is a very short burst of sonic primitive death reminiscent of early Archgoat in its execution and delivery. Grinding chords separated chromatically by semi-tones and tones churn underneath a chaotic solo, while non-stop machine gun drumming drives the abomination along.

Ending the demo tape is the final track, ‘Besieging the Wailing Wall.’ Following the formula established by the previous tracks, the song opens with a churning overdriven bass line before descending into guttural madness. The song deals with a slaughter at the famous Western Wall in Jerusalem and is drawn out far more than the other tracks on the demo tape.

For a nine-minute demo tape, Beastgod make their mark. Guttural, visceral, and reminiscent of some of the great names in the war metal underground. The structuring of the tracks is what’s to be expected from that particular genre offshoot; short tracks that are chromatically dense and tight, rough production, frontal vocals, and a thick, concentrated centralized mix.

With a limited production run of only 100 tapes, this might be difficult to track down, but worth the effort for collectors to do so, especially with what future efforts this band may have in store.

Label: Stygian Black Hand
Band: Beastgod

-AJK