GOATS OF DOOM: Rukous

1. Veressä on Perustani Juuret
2. Tuhkasta Valettu
3. Law ov Liberty
4. Sokeus Johtaa Kansaa
5. World Denied Lucifer's Light
6. Rukous
7. Riivaaja

Despite a somewhat misleading moniker, GOATS OF DOOM are 100% black metal through and through, and one of the Finnish underground's best-kept secrets. And yet, compared to the filthy recesses of their native contemporaries, GOATS OF DOOM specialize in a sleek and alluringly melodic sort of black metal - no less aggressive, but with the emphasis on mysticism and melody.

GOATS OF DOOM was founded in 2008 by Scaregod and Inasnum. Three full-lengths eventually followed in 2012, 2015, and 2017 with this lineup; in this iteration, the band was more synth-based black metal, but not strictly "symphonic black metal" by definition. Now expanded to a trio, GOATS OF DOOM showed a new face on Rukous, where the mysterious atmosphere of old is shot through with more surging aggression and bewitching melody: in essence, a melodic blizzard, if you will. It's characteristically Finnish in its melancholy - melody can never be too saccharine, of course - but burns icy hot with a passion that makes its seven-song/42-minute runtime a nightsky treasure to behold. The theme of Rukous is suitably spirituality, and hereby do GOATS OF DOOM offer myriad ways to worship the dark.

Rounded out by production that finds that perfect balance between grit and gleam, mystery and muscle, GOATS OF DOOM's Rukous presents a unique face to the ever-vibrant Finnish black metal idiom.