Review of Belphegor - Lucifer Incestus

In late 2001, the radio station I work at received a couple of packages from WWIII/Mercenary Musik. It was a smattering of bands I had never heard of receiving a domestic release for their albums. Included here were two CDs by this band Belphegor. Already overwhelmed with the amount of work I was doing at the time, I passed both discs onto a friend of mine there who was a bit kVlt and had a good head for metal. The reviews he came back with were so scathingly negative, I never even bothered to listen to them – I just threw them into the reject pile and forgot about them as fast I had learned about them.

So there was my mindset as I set out to review their latest album Lucifer Incestus – I didn’t like them and I had never even heard them. But, what fun is life without adventure, eh? I already knew they were a black metal band, it was just a matter of how well they pulled it off. Musically, they remind me a lot of Dark Funeral. Vocally . . . well, how much variation is there really in the black metal vocals? These are low and guttural, as opposed to high and screechy. No middle of the road there.

After a pointless intro, we get smacked in the face with “The Goatchrist”, which is actually a quite decent song that includes a very cool intro riff. The next track pretty much follows suit; nothing really special, but with some cool moments and riffs. Unfortunately, somewhere around the middle of the disc, I found myself wanting it to be over. It had gotten boring. Suddenly, elements that had stuck out before were getting lost in the mire of blast beats and razor riffs. I don’t really know what else to say. I did make it all the way though, but it was more just so I could say that I listened to the whole thing rather that actually WANTING to listen to the whole thing.

This album isn't bad - it's just very average. I know there are people out there who like this band, and love the entire genre of black metal. Well then, this album is for you. For the rest of us “fringe fans”, I’d much rather recommend Dark Funeral’s Diabolis Interium.

Release Details

Belphegor

Lucifer Incestus

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