WITCHGOAT is a Black/Thrash Metal band based out of El Salvador. In mid-2016, P. Scyther began composing music with the idea of creating a blackened Thrash Metal project that would go back to the elements of old school European and Latin American Thrash Metal and that would also combine the brutality and precariousness of the 1980's Metal and the melodic ideas of 1990's Blackened Death Metal. Following the release of a Demo in 2018, the band presents their debut full-length album here titled "Egregors of the Black Faith," which contains nine tracks.

"Litanies of the Adversary" is a quick intro, with howling winds and what sounds like the voice of Satan himself. "Proliferation of the Dark Souls" opens with chaotic riff and a blending of Black and Thrash Metal. It's nothing that you haven't heard before. The vocal are pure Black Metal while the instrumentation comes in between the two genres. "Black Vomit of Souls" is more of the same, with an ultra-fast riff and blast beat drumming. Though energetic, it lacks personality. "Emanations from the Underworld" has a similar fast moving sound, with the guitars building that big wall of sound that you can come to expect from Black Metal. "Putrefaction of Souls" has a slower, more grinding riff, and here you can hear some more of the band's personality. It turns faster soon enough however, wallowing in that chaos from earlier tracks.

"Into the Jaws of Death" features again more of the same. The riffs are recognizable and you have to wonder, why try to re-create the wheel? "Eyes of the Profane" features a bit of a thicker sound, where the vocals exist outside of the rhythms of the instrumentation. They are going for broke here for sure. "Umbra Regit" was the first single they released, with a bit of a more linear sound and a riff that you can follow a bit easier. Still, I imagine blood pouring from the guitarist's fingertips from riffing so hard yet he does not stop. "Beyond the Soil of the Dead" opens with a harrowing guitar solo and then it's more of the same.

The album isn't bad per se, it's just that each track sounds very similar to the one before it. The bass is high in the mix which is always good. The production is muffled-by design on purpose? I'm not sure. The album succeeds in the aforementioned mission, but it just doesn't offer anything new to the world of Heavy Metal, although the energy is noteworthy.