Archgoat - The Light-Devouring Darkness (2009)^{Release ID: 7402}

OK, so in my bestial black metal ventures, a single album was all it took to prove that Archgoat is a bit better than the iconic Blasphemy.  In my earlier review for Blasphemy's debut album, I said that they have invented a standard but it would be easy for many bands to beat them at it.  It's pretty obvious that Archgoat was not only one of the bands that were struck with Blasphemy, but would surpass them.  Having said that, surpassing the two Blasphemy albums is not a difficult task to me, and their debut was a decent experience.  How would their next one turn out?

After the dark ambient into and the first song, I thought to myself it would just be a rehash, but I would soon be proved wrong.  The next two songs showed a careful death doom slow pace which was simplistic but fairly hypnotic.  If not for their standard sound, I would've been awestruck with it, but remained only impressed with the decision.  But then track 5, Sodomator of the Doomed Venus (I typed that shit out and I need to wash my hands) steals the show with a short, black punkish display of spasmatic percussion and raw noise.  The noise is further touched up on in the once again simple but purely black title track.  So by this point, I'm quite a bit more impressed with their attempts at further exploring extreme metal itself on this record.  I mean, I still have an obligation to call this album out for low-grade songwriting, but they're doing much more with this album while maintaining the strengths of their first.  The group also makes room for more melody during the slower and doomier moments, but are improving their melodic prowess a little bit in the faster moments, too.  Not much, but still.

So while Archgoat clearly still have some training to do in the songwriting department, they've been able to touch up the concept of innovation a little more.  Having said that, they don't often overcome the monotony of the first album, but at least they're trying.  Easy improvement and a nice direction forward.

My first dalliances with Finnish war metal heavy-weights Archgoat came about way back in my early-to-mid 1990’s tape trading days when a European trader sent me their 1991 demo tape “Jesus Spawn” & their lovingly-titled 1993 “Angelcunt (Tales of Desecration)” EP. The former did very little for me to be honest but the latter commanded a decent amount of my time over the next year or so. For one reason or another though, Archgoat & I wouldn’t cross paths again until my return to metal in 2009 when I discovered their 2006 debut album “Whore of Bethlehem” which once again saw me raising an eyebrow or two. Their brand new “The Light-Devouring Darkness” sophomore album would very quickly be getting the once-over off the back of that experience but I don’t recall it making as much of an impact as Archgoat’s two earlier proper releases &, as a result, I haven’t returned to it since. I’ve been thinking that it might be time to reassess that position though, particularly after refreshing my passion for “Whore of Bethlehem” not too long ago.

“The Light-Devouring Darkness” sees Archgoat returning with the same three-piece lineup as had impressed me so much on their debut album but it definitely sounds a bit different to its older sibling. “Whore of Bethlehem” possessed a swarming, filthy wall of humming guitar noise & a raspy vocal delivery. “The Light-Devouring Darkness” sees Archgoat opting for a more traditional & much dryer guitar tone that’s reminiscent of the underground extreme metal scene of the 1980’s. Lord Angelslayer’s vocals are also quite different in timbre, this time going for a much deeper death metal croak. I think it’s fair to say that I preferred the guitar tone from the debut pretty comfortably over this one but the vocals are equally evil & actually come across as a refreshing change. The clear Celtic Frost influence from the debut has been toned back a touch here with Archgoat now championing a sound that harnesses several seminal extreme metal bands. The slower sections regularly draw upon early Mayhem & Darkthrone for inspiration while Autopsy & mid-80’s Bathory also get an airing or two.

Despite sounding a little different to “Whore of Bethlehem”, Archgoat have maintained their initial point of difference as they’re clearly a little less chaotic & noticeably more controlled than their war metal brethren. They leave more space in their riff & song structures & utilize slower tempos much more regularly which has become somewhat of a signature for them. Despite this, they still keep things sounding nice & loose which gives the record that lovely underground authenticity that’s so important for any successful war metal release. When they drop the shackles though, they can still cane along at a hectic rate but you won’t find too many over-the-top chromatic guitar solos here which is a shame in my opinion as I’ve always really enjoyed that element of the war metal assault.

If I’m being honest with myself, I think I appreciate “The Light-Devouring Darkness” more for what it represents than what it actually is. Despite finding myself enjoying every one of the ten tracks included, there are quite a few here that are really a little bit insignificant when looked at in any sort of detail. Archgoat keep things VERY simple for the most part & there’s not a lot of ambition on show. The atmosphere they create during those slower sections (often accentuated by the subtle use of keyboards) is pretty awesome though & there can be no denying their ability to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the more savage roots of the underground extreme metal scene. The fact is that they did it a touch better on “Angelcunt (Tales of Desecration)” & “Whore of Bethlehem” though which makes “The Light-Devouring Darkness” seem inessential in comparison, even if it’ll no doubt please diehard fans of bands like Blasphemy, Beherit & Black Witchery.

P.S. What a totally bad-ass album cover too. It's so fucking evil. I just love it!