AAAAAARGH FUKK!!!! Yes, Satan's favourite insane blasphemers have returned with yet another punch to the gonads of the rotting corpse of Jesus. Screaming forth with the usual winning combination of relentless blastbeats, spewed vocals and insane layers of melodious guitar chaos, Belphegor never fails to produce a crushing slab of violence. While this one isn't quite as frantic as 2003's Lucifer Incestus, it surpasses that album in terms of melodic structure – standout tracks like "Bleeding Salvation", "Fornicationium et Immundus Diabolus" and "Festum Asinorum" are monoliths of ear-raping melody, burning into your brain with their searing genius. Elsewhere, "Sepulture of Hypocrisy" is something of a departure, being a slow crushing death-doom track – dropping far below the usual high-speed insanity, this one swings slow riffs like iron hammers in a stone corridor, smashing everything around it with sheer weight.

Lyrically, of course, there's nothing new here: just the usual blasphemous profanity vomited forth from Helmuth's scarred-up larynx. There's maybe a slight bit less sexual grossout material (ditto for the artwork, which is devoid of vagina and breast shots this time, obviously a bid to avoid getting the album banned in Germany this time around) but there's plenty of nunraping perversity all the same. While this hasn't blown me away as much as Lucifer Incestus did, there's still plenty of rotten carrion for fans to sink their fangs into here. It has everything a good dose of violence requires – solid songwriting, a good balance of melody and brutality and, of course, a drum sound with enough power to knock a building over at sufficient volume. So, proceed to your nearest wooden church armed with petrol, matches and a copy of Goatreich-Fleshcult and proceed to sodomize the lambs ov dog. Fukker.

Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewed by: Chaossphere / Metalcrypt.com Texas