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For their seventh studio album, Austrian black metal veterans Belphegor used an author for inspiration. They delved into the disturbing world of Marquis De Sade (sadism comes from his name) to create dark and sometimes twisted lyrical and musical imagery.

Bondage Goat Zombie is a title that will grab your attention, and the music does as well. It's black metal with death metal influences. The songs range from slow, ominous dirges to fast, blast-beat driven evil.


There are some typical black metal sounding tracks, but others that are much groovier with excellent guitar riffs and solos.

Helmuth's vocals alternate between low and high pitched growls, which are both perfectly understandable, which is pretty good for a black metal vocalist whose first language isn't English. The album closes with "Der Rutenmarsch," a majestic German language song that's pretty close to a ballad, and a very well done one. Bondage Goat Zombie is a diverse and sufficiently evil black/death metal CD.

(released April 15, 2008 on Nuclear Blast Records)