The kings of Austrian BDSMetal are back for yet another go. Having seen them live and enjoyed their last few albums I can say this without fear. They are getting progressively more insane by the moment, and we the listener benefit more than we can ever know. They are somehow getting more melodic and more vicious at the same time, a combination most unnatural. I don’t know how they maintain a 40 minute blast fest without causing me to lose interest for so much as a second, but they did it.

They do like to slow down now and then, to draw out the suffering a bit before they go back to grinding your bones to powder. When they do slow down you hear a much underrated rhythm section that tends to get lost in the chaos when they go blast crazy. Helmuth sounds like he has been gargling with the very forces of Hell itself, vacillating between a low growl and a higher rasp. They remind me of a combination of Dissection meets Vader while hanging from the ceiling by its nipples. Sex is a big thing for these guys as you see in the glorious song titles “Bondage Goat Zombie” and “Sexdictator Lucifer”. (If a woman ever calls you this in bed guys, marry her or I will. She’s clearly a keeper.) This album is all about the agony and the ecstasy drawn from it. It works because by the time it ends I am in pain and yet I want more.

They were even nice enough to include a bonus DVD with some interesting stuff. It has the uncensored version of the “Bondage Goat Zombie” video, which if you like a woman in a gasmask and fetishized nun outfit you will love. There is some of the shooting of the video, which is just Helmuth on floor with a cat o nine tails and a spiked leather hood. There is rehearsal footage and even footage of them recording the album. To be honest I could have lived without those parts but more is better. The best parts of the live footage from a festival and a section devoted to the fans showing their love for Belphegor. Half of it seems to be their female fans in various states of exposure. I have no complaints about that. This would be a great deal if it just had the album, but the DVD is the icing on the cake. A very perverted and evil album.

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