Artist: Wargoat
Country: Greece
Label: Angel Of Cemetery Records
Formats: 7″ EP
Year: 2025
Originally released on cassette tape in 2023 by the same label, Angel Of Cemetery Records now presents Wargoat’s ‘Mysteries Of Primitive Damnation’ on a 7” EP. This is a great opportunity to set the record straight that, although the band has been active for twenty years, Wargoat has never made it onto these pages. Hopefully, this will also contribute to bringing this Greek Black/Death Metal band further out of the shadows, because although they have two hands full of releases and we see current and former band members who are or were active in bands such as Goat Synagogue, War Possession, Embrace Of Thorns and Cthonic Aura, I feel that they deserve a little more credit for their work.
‘Mysteries Of Primitive Damnation’ is basically a 2-track demo with an additional intro and outro, but even with this rather short playing time Wargoat possibly sounds more devastating than ever. The predominantly muffled sound and the rather clunky changes in pace do add much to the old school vibe of the music, very close to old Blasphemy or a more Death Metal-oriented Beherit. Some call it War Metal, others simply Death Metal, while yet another group considers it Bestial Black Metal. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter what label it gets, because with their own nomenclature, everyone means exactly this music when they try to explain such a raw punch in the teeth. This is clearly not about originality or pushing boundaries; it is a more than obvious statement of deliberate musical regression and degeneration.
There are bands claiming to play this same game, but do not have any idea what they’re doing. They either keep it far too neat, which makes it seem forced, or it’s really one big mess, which makes the musicians fall short in that area. Watgoat doesn’t belong to either of these groups, they know how to write proper riffs and have enough dynamics to hold your attention (admittedly, the fact that there are only two songs helps a lot). The “secret” here lies mainly in the raw and muddy production, that truly adds to the magic and makes it all the more enjoyable.
