Review - 'Goat Semen: Ego Svm Satana'

Goat Semen - Ego Svm Satana (2015)

Hell’s Headbangers

Review by Trevor Proctor

One of the most anticipated underground albums in recent memory is set to make a most welcome appearance in February. Way back in 2002 Peruvian black-death band Goat Semen first made an impact with the release of their self-titled demo, a demo that soon gained notoriety and has been repressed a number of times in multiple formats. Since then they’ve released two well received live albums and a few splits here and there but never, until now, a full studio album. Ten years in the making it’s no surprise anticipation around the release of “Ego Svm Satana” has reached feverish levels. Goat Semen's Ego Svm Satana, is set for North and South American release on February 24th via Hells Headbangers.

The band experienced a number of obstacles during the years and to be honest it’s a mark of the band’s commitment and dedication that it will see the light of day at all. Regarding the album vocalist Neyra recently stated “We recorded everything in June 2012, and the early mixes were made by Beleth at some studio where he was working, during the next year. Still during this period of a year, the mix work was turning slow due to the fact that they were being made literally at almost 4000 meters high on the highlands of Peru, and we could not get together enough time to properly make the mix patiently. 

At this point in early 2014, Arthur Rizk - who had just worked on the last Inquisition album - contacted the band and gently offered us to give us a hand with the studio work, as he could handle the mix and had a much better studio and conditions to make this in Philadelphia. It was actually hard work of a month and a half, making written descriptions for the changes and suggestions, to each of the samplers sent by Arthur, but finally the results turned out really great and far much better than expected. We contacted Chase (Horval, Hells Headbangers label head) again and started to deal about the release of Goat Semen’s debut album through Hells Headbangers, and also we had the proposal of Finland's Kvlt Records, who now will be responsible for the release of Ego Svm Satana in Finland, so now the album will be available from these two great labels for America and Europe."

Goat Semen’s music thrives with the barbaric intensity we’ve come to expect from South American bands – brutal, heavy, fast and completely fuelled by blasphemy. The song tempos and duration vary significantly during the album which features three tracks with an average duration of ninety seconds each - yet in total contrast the penultimate track is a punishing, yet brilliant, eleven minutes. The production throughout is excellent and never sounds overly polished whilst also managing to avoid being too muddy or murky.

Tracks like Holocausto and Genocido blaze past in a vitriolic flash, knocking the shit out of you before you’ve even realised what the fuck’s going on whilst tracks like the simply brilliant Hambre, Peste, Guerra y Muerte adopt a much slower gait, taking their time to destroy everything in sight. This is a very impressive album from start to finish and also an album well worth the wait – let’s just hope they don’t keep us waiting as long for the next one. Despite the wait from demo to album and a number of personnel changes, Goat Semen have lost none of their conviction or intensity, this is an album you’ll give many spins during the coming year. Neyra summed it up perfectly when he referred to it as “Monumental Barbarism”. Quality.

9/10

Tracklist:

1. Letanias de Satan - Intro

2. Holocausto

3. Genocidio

4. Warfare Noise

5. Revelaciones

6. Altares De Pandemonium

7. Madre Muerte

8. Hambre, Peste, Guerra y Muerte

9. Ego Svm Satana

Ego Svm Satana is released by Hells Headbangers on February 24th on CD, LP and Tape.