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Goggata are yet another Black Metal duo, which appears to be a trend that's getting close to being as ubiquitous as one-man Black Metal bands. Like any self-respecting band of their type, they have a few singles and EPs that aren't even listed on Metal-Archives and both members have pseudonyms, though I do wonder why they couldn't come up with anything better than Spokeman 1 (guitars) and Spokeman 2 (everything else, it seems). But there's more to Black Metal than image; the real question is whether or not this is good, and truth be told, I'm not so sure myself.

On the one hand, there are plenty of ideas on here that make the band stand out from the crowd, such as the monk choir on "Askes" that serve as a prelude to the expected tornado of dark and violent Black Metal and various other touches that I guess make this qualify for what's often called Post-Black. On the other hand, practically none of this stands out to me as all that interesting, with the only exception being the main guitar rhythm on "Janus Spegel" sounding an awful lot like it came from an Impaled Nazarene song. I guess this review isn't terribly useful if I can't even take a clear stance on it, but that's kind of where it's at with me despite several listens. Maybe it'll be recognized as the next trve kvlt Black Metal masterwork to surpass the debut of Tuvalu's own Zepryxoth, limited to six copies and remembered only by descendants of Lilith (Google can't dispute any of that, and neither can you), or maybe it'll just be another frisbee for the discerning metalhead to toss out a window, I couldn't tell you. I might come around to it one way or another down the line, but for now the least I can say is that I don't hate it and find it occasionally interesting. Make of that what you will.