At long last, one of the most highly anticipated debut albums ever arrives: GOAT SEMEN's Ego Svm Satana. At ground zero of the rebirth and resurgence of South American black/death at the dawn of the new millennium, these Peruvian devils delivered one of the most classic demos ever with their self-titled 2002 demo, which has seen countless re-editions in the past decade as well as the band's legendary grow to enviable levels. But alas, a debut album has eluded the band, and the fervor 'n' anticipation for one have reached critical mass in the metal underground. Taking on almost mythical status (not unlike Sadistic Intent's long-promised debut LP), GOAT SEMEN's Ego Svm Satana has been in the making for literally a decade. Granted, the band's been keeping busy in the underground since the 2002 demo, releasing a handful of splits with the likes of Nazxul, Krieg, Levifer, and Japan's Sabbat, among others, as well as two highly coveted live albums - but each step of the way, it's only been a few songs teasingly released a time.
But now, Ego Svm Satana explodes into being, fully formed as the ultimate GOAT SEMEN statement. Like a veritable travelogue across the history of South American metal barbarity the past three decades, Ego Svm Satana surges and gnashes with all the hellfire and hatred the continent's black/death is world renowned for, and yet the quartet imbibe all these traditions and spit them out nastier than ever. Song dynamics and even lengths range a surprising amount of ground for metal so hideous and maniacal; likewise, the production finds the right balance between raw and well-rounded. Through it all, however, the feeling of imminent implosion lurks around every dark 'n' diseased corner, chaos nearly taking hold and never losing its grip, whipping the listener into either a full-on frenzy or a state of perpetual tension. GOAT SEMEN laugh all the while, the masters taunting their servants, and Ego Svm Satana summarily the execution the latter's begging for. If you were ever seeking the perfect combination of INRI, Black Force Domain, Aquelarre, Sexual Carnage, and Wicca...look no further.
Goat Semen vocalist Neyra relates the story leading up to Ego Svm Satana: "It's been more than a decade it took us to compose, arrange, and make all the studio work for this long-anticipated album! Though it was more a fact of different things that caused this delay, such as the changes in lineup and the different personal activities that kept also the current lineup members busy. Not meaning that the band is not a priority, but hell, we are in Peru and have everything - mostly economic issues - against us! There were changes in the lineup, since Levifer was asked to leave. Eduardo 'Hellfucker' Sanchez - he was also guitarist on the first Black Angel demo, and died August 2011 - joined the band immediately (2006) and also contributed to the compositions that you will hear on ESS, but due to work schedules and his reduced time to rehearse, he was also asked to leave. Then Beleth took the six strings and Necro takes the bass (2010), so during this period, we could finally finish the composition and arrangements of the album.
"We recorded everything in June 2012, and the early mixes were made by Beleth at some studio where he was working, during the next year. Still during this period of a year, the mix work was turning slow due to the fact that they were being made literally at almost 4000 meters high on the highlands of Peru, and we could not get together enough time to properly make the mix patiently. At this point in early 2014, Arthur Rizk - who had just worked on the last Inquisition album - contacted the band and gently offered us to give us a hand with the studio work, as he could handle the mix and had a much better studio and conditions to make this in Philadelphia. It was actually hard work of a month and a half, making written descriptions for the changes and suggestions, to each of the samplers sent by Arthur, but finally the results turned out really great and far much better than expected. We contacted Chase (Horval, Hells Headbangers label head) again and started to deal about the release of Goat Semen?s debut album through Hells Headbangers, and also we had the proposal of Finland's Kvlt Records, who now will be responsible for the release of Ego Svm Satana in Finland, so now the album will be available from these two great labels for America and Europe."
"There have been many things that happened to us during this long period of time. We have played in different places in South America, and have shared the stage with such cult acts like Vulcano, Mystifier, and Sabbat (Japan). We released some split vinyls and CDs as well as an advance tape with some early mix of some album songs, which got licensed also in Asia, USA, and Europe. But finally, we have the long-anticipated Ego Svm Satana album released, and I think this piece of monumental barbarism keeps the same path we started since the rehearsal tapes we unleashed at the very beginning of this fucking millennium! Hail the Goat!" |
