GosT - Behemoth
Blood Music
Electro/Synth horror soundtracks
11 songs (39:00)
Release year: 2015
Reviewed by Charles
This is a good album for anyone who was disappointed at how tasteful and understated the electronic elements on the last Morbid Angel album were. From the cover it looks a bit like a metal album, and the promo material claims that it draws inspiration from 1990s black metal, but you have to wait right up until the last quarter or so of the album to have any inkling of where such a comparison might come from (and even then, not very much). What this actually is gleefully cheesy and entertaining synth music, with twinkling treble bleeps and deep, farting bass stabs, plus the ultra-rudimentary drum programmes: it’s like something a young person might listen to, but cleverly aimed at old people like me who get nostalgic about 80s horror films.

And yeah, the vibe is proper, proper 80s horror film. And I don’t mean that in a credible Halloween kind of way, where the soundtrack is actually quite classy and creepy. Instead, I mean jubilantly sleazy Euro-exploitation horror. Listening to it, I am overwhelmed by memories of films like Zombi 2, Zombi 3, Zombie Holocaust, Burial Ground, Zombi 4, Nightmare City, Demons, and Zombi 5. It makes me imagine a wobbly panning shot in grainy film over a tropical location, populated by extras who aren’t sure whether the zombies they are playing are supposed to run or not because the director hasn’t turned up, and where the central characters are played either by adult film performers looking to branch out or Shakespearian actors brought in under false pretences.

Talking of which, it reminds of the band Zombi, as well, except a bit shriller, more tongue-in-cheek, and considerably more dance-oriented. So very crude, simple rhythms, and overbearing, gaudy timbres. There aren’t even any vocals until the seventh track, where it starts to sound like girl-band pop. So I was starting to wonder why the hell I had been asked to review it. Right near the end there’s a song called Bathory Bitch, which I think is a kind of tribute to Bathory. It bears very little discernible resemblance, being a pretty typical GosT track in most ways, but there are some gothic choral vocals used here in quite a menacing way which I guess is supposed to channel the same kind of atmosphere. And then right at the end is Behemoth (another tribute?), where we actually get what could, if you ear-squint, be an exuberant metal guitar riff- or at least some fun party metal like Andrew WK- but it’s just because the electronics here are so squelching and abrasive. In all likelihood you will not like this, although I admit I sort of did.

Killing Songs :
Behemoth, Nightcrawler
Charles quoted no quote
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