Let's be honest for a minute. Finland's ARCHGOAT can do no wrong. Every song, every EP, every split, every fucking album is an abhorrent, blasphemous, brutal assault to the senses. If you're hoping for a diverse sound from album to album, if you want your bands to grow and take on new challenges, if you want the albums to have an array of highs and lows, then, my friend, ARCHGOAT just isn't for you. With four albums (including the new one) and a shitload of EP's and splits, ARCHGOAT hardly ever vary from their original sound, which is war metal, dungeon metal, or any fucking thing you want to call the putridity that is the band.
"The Luciferian Crown" doesn't take us in different directions, and goddammit, that's just how we like it.
'Infrantation' is the usual intro we're all used to from album to album. Then 'Jesus Christ Father Of Lies" pummels us with blastbeats, familiar guitars and the gurgling vocal style of Lord Angelslayer. And midway through the track, the slowed-down, swaying guitars that are their trademark make their appearance before kicking us in the teeth with full-on fury. 'Jezebels Black Mass' is another full-throttle attack in pure ARCHGOAT fashion. And wait...screaming tortured swine at the beginning of ''Messiah Of Pigs"...starting to be a ritual on each album now? Then a slightly different rhythm in 'Darkness Has Returned' rears its ugly head in a more old-school form of death metal. But it's just enough to still sound like ARCHGOAT. And damn does it kick tumultuous ass. 'Sorcery And Doom' begins with an atmospheric, outdoors vibe with eerie voices and running water, or maybe rain, until the lightning fast pounding of metal breaks the silence. Bells summon forth 'Stars Of Darkness And Abyss' as the band belts out a fast-paced swarm of living hell which sounds pretty much like anything on any of their albums. In the band's case, familiarity breeds more love for a band that's been beating us down for three decades.
'The Obsidian Flame (From My Depths)', 'The Luciferian Crown (Venom Of God)' and 'I Am Lucifer's Temple' are typical ARCHGOAT throughout, which is simply glorious.
So if you like ARCHGOAT's prior releases, you're going to love this album just as much. There's never, ever a disappointing moment in ARCHGOAT's catalog of music. So what are you waiting for? Explore the absolute demonic ass-beating that is "The Luciferian Crown". You'll thank me for it.
- David Simonton