Lords Of Metal (nl)
It is always fun to deal with heavy-driven and inspired musicians.
I am sure that the men of Belphegor really live for their music, you just feel that. In spite of hectic tour schedules, they have managed to come up with new material one and a half year after ‘Goatreich – Fleshcult’ (which was a stunner too) and I have to say that they blow me away like never before. They experimented a bit with slower rhythms and even a proper doom epos on the previous album, but on ‘Pestapokalypse VI’ they have chosen for the famous Belphegor formula again: an impressive mix of death and black metal, that brims with high technical skills.

However this does not mean that they ram all over without some necessary depth, because now that Helmuth (vocals, guitars) and Sigurd (guitars) are the only remaining core members, they really surpassed themselves in marvellous guitar lines which can be found just under the surface of the extreme music, so that you discover new things with every spin. The lyrics are enouncements of blasphemous art in three different languages (English, German and Latin).

And there is more news to announce. Belphegor signed a contract with Nuclear Blast, they have done successful tours in South America and the confidential Mastersound studio of Alexander Krull was exchanged for recordings with Andy Classen at the Stage One studio in Kassel.

This time we notice a slight majority of black metal, a pretty large sprinkling of the songs have a breakneck speed and blastbeats. ‘Belphegor – Hell’s Ambassador’ kicks off the album with riffs as massive of those of Slayer and Belphegor soon switches to a higher gear in ‘Seyn Todt In Schwartz’. A first highlight however is the peerless ‘Angel Of Retribution’ (with Gorefest alike death metal grunts) with its trailing fibre and guitars are a delight for our ears.

But also in the maximum velocity black metal track ‘Chants For The Devil’, delicious lingering passages are inserted. These are perfectly dosed, for tracks like ‘The Ancient Enemy’ and ‘Sanctus Perversum’ are relentless fast speed compositions. In the meantime the band shot two video clips: one for the opening track ‘Belphegor – Hell’s Ambassador’ and another for the club hit yet extreme enough remaining ‘Bluhtsturm Erotika’.

Be sure to buy the limited digipack, because there you can find these fuss-making visual attractions. ‘Pestapokalypse VI’ is available at the 27th of October and the band is booked again to travel through Europe with the X-mas festival caravan at the end of the year.

With this strong material, the undersigned will be present at the first row.

Score: 88/100 Vera Matthijssens / Lords Of Metal