Libations to the Ancient Goat

Let’s go back in time, when the old Greek Black Metal sound was taking shape and see a band that had very few releases back then, but left some quality material before they disappeared. So recently, I got my hands on the cd release of Darkest Oath, called ‘Libations to the Ancient Goat’ released on 25th of May of 2013 by Cryptia Productions. Darkest Oath was a band that consisted mainly of Jim Necrochrist and various musicians, different in almost every release. The band, because of various unfortunate events, couldn’t release a full length album. However, their material has managed to be appreciated by the fans and gained a cult status. This album is the compilation of every previous release of Darkest Oath from 1993 when they released their first split tape, until their last release, the demo of 2006, but also some previously unreleased tracks and a King Diamond cover. It consists of fourteen songs with a duration of one hour and ten minutes, so, as you can understand, the listener will get a complete image of the band and its evolution through time.

The compilation is divided into two parts. The first part contains all the band’s material released in the 90’s. Their music is devoted to the traditional Greek sound of the early 90’s, with the ethereal, mystical keyboards, the heavy, bass and really dark guitars. They have written some really interesting and representational riffs of that era, other times minimalistic, fast with very few changes, while other times more heavy – thrash oriented. The sound quality is primitive and raw as it should be. The second part of this compilation consists of more recent, after 2000, recordings. The evolution of the band is obvious, firstly you will notice the change in the riffing style. The guitars have clearer sound and the riffs are more modern. The keyboards play an important role in these compositions too, the sound is more modern for the keyboards too. In general, the riffs in this part are dark, chaotic, fast and have maintained some of the elements of the old days but also introduced some new elements. The songs duration is good in most cases, between four to seven minutes, and their structure is clear, with the verses and choruses, some bridges to escalate the tension and some unexpected changes just to keep you focused until the end.

The only permanent member throughout the entire journey of Darkest Oath, was Jim Necrochrist who is responsible for the vocals and for all the instruments, although there are various members who are responsible for some of the instruments. Generally, the performance of every instrument is very good apart from the drums, in some cases their sound is bad and their patterns, too repetitive. The vocals vary from harsh Black Metal growls to deep, heavy ones. The production for the first part is raw and harsh giving the sound a truly evil result. For the newer recordings the production is more bassy and clean. The mixture is balanced highlighting the guitars and the keyboards. The cd comes with a very nice twelve page booklet with all the tracks’ lyrics, some old photos, some old interviews and a small text summing up the entire journey of the band. The lyrics are in English and they talk about Satanism, rituals and darkness.

In conclusion, ‘Libations to the Ancient Goat’ is a very nice compilation which has everything you need in order to get a clear opinion about the band and why they gained cult status. Of course this is going to be interesting for those who already are into the old Greek Black Metal sound and want to discover more about it. If you want to begin with this scene, you should choose another band from the classic ones.