“The Eclipse of Ages Into Black” is the first album by Goatwhore, released on February 22, 2000. In many ways, I think that this is a perfect Black Metal album. It has this Romantic Medieval sound to it. It reminds me a lot of the early 2000’s RPG games.
There is a real esoteric element to the album, between the lyrics, album art, and even the music itself. The album art even has the notorious picture from Eliphas Levi on it. On the inside of the sleeve, there is a picture of a goat’s head, though to me, it looks like a uterus. I don’t know if that’s intentional.
Some of my favorite songs are “The Beauty In Suffering”, “Under A Dark God”, “Satan’s Millennium”, “Graveyards And Dead Angels”, and of course, “Invert The Virgin”. When I would go to Goatwhore shows, I would always ask them to play that last track, but they wouldn’t . It wasn’t until they played majority of this album in Houston, in 2025, that I finally got to hear them play it.
What I love about this album, is how much rhythm and groove there is to it. It might be Satanic and evil, but you can also shake your ass! “Satan’s Millenium” is an example of this.
I think that “As The Reflection Fades” is a beautiful song, and very romantic. I suppose that it’s a Goatwhore love song. I love the lyric, “On stormy nights, the thunder sighs”. It’s just so clever. “From darkness, she whispers to me”, is another part I like. Like a man being haunted by a past love.
Overall, I love this album, and I think it’s perfect. 5/5.
My video: https://youtube.com/shorts/GfWqQxLe3hE
