Review Summary: Blasting through heaven.
If there is anything I learnt in this life, it’s that nothing can ever be 100% anything. Nothing is unquestionably good. Nothing is utterly evil. Everything is something in between. Everything has its own drops of light and its own rotting parasite of darkness. We need to have a proper mixture of conniving hatred and merciful gentleness inside. Nobody deserves all the good in the world, nothing is too sacred, everything must be questioned and everyone is only a mortal. Detach yourselves from the tether of your fears of disappointment, death, attachment and other worldly shackles and be free. Don’t take anything at face value. And also, just because something is built of elements of disgust, doesn’t sentence it to being loveless and unworthy of your adoration.
It is true that atmospheric black metal as a genre has a tendency to verge between chaos and beauty. It is true that I am a sucker for overwhelming atmospheric black metal in all of its pretentious glory. And it is true that blasting drums, shrieking guitar riffs and demonic growls on paper sound like the very ingredients for an experience as hellish as is possible to imagine. It is also true that Ghash’s Goat is possibly one of the most heavenly beauties out there this year.
It contains everything a proper devilish experience needs, yet leads you carefully by the hand through the pearly gates. It is the light in darkness. It is made of evil’s main ingredients and yet its bliss is worthy of gods. It is the brightest, most caressingly tender experience in not just metal, but quite possibly music in general in the last year and also quite possibly even longer. Because you cannot accept heaven without a triumph, this is as overwhelming as it can be.
