Thursday, October 10, 2013

Istengoat - "MMXII" (2012)


EP (Apocalyptic Productions/Blood Harvest Records, July 7th 2012)

Line – up (2011):    WLTS – vocals;
                                David Liempi – guitar/bass;
                                PTRC – 1 – guitar/bass;
                                C.I.R.R. – drums.

Location:                 Santiago (Chile)

Better song of the EP:

“Shiqus Shomem”.

Better feature of the band:

The vocals.
After “Profane Cult” of the Praise the Flame, here you another reissue from Blood Harvest, published originally from Apocalyptic Productions. So, this time I talk about “MMXII”, that is the first assault of the Istengoat (“Isten” means “God”), that vomited 3 tracks per 13 minutes of sonic massacre.

The Chilean band plays a various enough black metal with a good balance between the fast and the slower tempos, and during the first ones you can hear some influences from the more violent Swedish black metal (listen to “Shiqus Shomem”, the shorter song of the EP considering its 3 minutes circa of length). But there are also doom metal passages as at times some melodies, and the good thing is that the solos are technically prepared and well – developed (there is a solo per song).

The Istengoat also know how to differentiate the various tracks between them: in this way, “MMXII” ranges from the furious assault of the aforementioned “Shiqus Shomem” to the more reasoned solutions of “Pogrom” (that has a pure death metal intro) until the black/thrash moments of “Avatara”, playing the entire music in a simple and linear way (also if the approach is sometimes a little questionable, as you’ll see very soon).

I must mention absolutely the vocals, that are characterized principally by profound and “ignorant” growls with occasional screams, so to make the music in a more wicked way, and these ones doubles sometimes the main vocals. The voice has also a very atmospheric and cavernous reverb, thanks to a dark but decisively audible production.

Despite the quality of music, my mind is crossed by some doubts. For example, it’s a shame that the intro of “Pogrom” isn’t developed, also because it represent the only and real death metal moment of the EP, becoming useless to the purpose of the song. Then, the band has the tendency to introduce the solos in a bit prolix way, repeating too much a single musical solution (“Pogrom”) or playing apparently ad libitum a simple scheme between two different passages (“Avatara”), so to result to be very foreseeable.
Fortunately, all these particulars aren’t so important to the final outcome, also because the Istengoat have many strings to their own bows, a contagious old – school wickedness included. Then, this band is very young, so why do you pretend already a masterpiece?

Vote: 72

Flavio “Claustrofobia” Adducci

Tracklist:

1 – Pogrom/ 2 – Avatara/ 3 – Shiqus Shomem

Official site: