Alright kids, time for a truth sandwich: this record is not very enjoyable. Once again, Belphegor is stomping out furious black/death metal aiming to mindlessly destroying everything in sight, yet our prophet of goodness is finding this particular vision a bit redundant, especially considering how it’s exactly what could be expected. Now I have nothing against Austria’s insane trio, but I’m left finding this whole observation very bland, even despite its occasional fun. It’s like superhuman breeding: sounds good at hindsight, that is, until you get repulsive abominations. Forcing identical musical genetics to reproduce over and over makes those grand numbers rather deficient after several incestuous episodes, and when equating this same model, we are given “Bondage Goat Zombie.”

The album’s finest asset: it’s fucking Belphegor. Coming off of “Pestapokalypse VI,” our Austrian pals still work on summoning rapid tremolo pickings sections, lightning-fast blastbeats, and solos that’ll actually melt your face if you don’t watch yourself. There are some very noteworthy instances when slow, liquidating interludes mandate slower instrumentation built of melodic riffs and chilled percussion, which works very well when the times begin to get a little tough, but still not something they’ve never done before. Helmuth’s growls/shrieks fall short of his guitar playing, but I still wouldn’t call them damaging overall; he just doesn’t add much velocity toward Belphegor’s assault with those vocals, respectively.

The album’s biggest problem: it’s fucking Belphegor. After sitting through “Bondage Goat Zombie” several times, a few things are finally realized: variety seems fictive, monotony runs the show, and Belphegor have stuck to exactly what was expected. Every moment of every track is marinated in tremolo picking, blasting, and mid-paced canals typically found with a deer-in-headlights glance that lacks all kind of spice; nothing acts new or refreshing, and it’s been too long since an upgrade was applied, hence the interchangeable scenario. They did, however, add sexual perversion to the lyrical abyss instead of just Satanic/anti-Christian rants, yet doing so really doesn’t change anything important overall. I did enjoy those orgasm samples on “Sexdictator Lucifer,” mainly because it demonstrates lame black/death metal and sexual pleasure coexisting, which shall certainly never happen. Made me chuckle, honestly.

There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind “Bondage Goat Zombie” would be completely masterful if it had some variety aside from Belphegor’s one-staged formula, which can be very nice at times, but rather the opposite after experiencing these indistinguishable chapters nine times in a row. You know, I’m just hunting for music not born from the womb of the unoriginal, yet our generic indications point toward what was always suspected: it’s just the same thing on an endless cycle. Like the band? Buy this CD. Don’t enjoy these guys or haven’t ever heard their stuff? Pass along like nothing ever happened.