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Goatwhore: Blood for the master
13/04/12 || Habakuk
Celebrating the best month in Audio Autopsy since I’ve been participating, I’ll go out and actually give the full review treatment to one of the contestants. Because I can. And because we need a few more reviews on our pile – why not review something current, you know, relevant, for a change? It’s got nothing to do with Goatwhore being a great mixture of black metal harmonies and raspiness, death/thrash and a shot of punk.
Now before I formulate this whole review in negations, let’s agree that this joke will wear thin and forget about it. Enter positive mode: Goatwhore sound damn good, and while they go pretty much full-frontal on “Blood of the master”, the mixture of styles with guitars heavy on the thrash side, keeps their platter of 10 songs ever interesting. I had actually never heard them before, probably because everything released post-1994 is the devil. In my ignorant state, one more thing struck me from the beginning, and it took me a while to find out: Who does that singer sound similar to? The answer is: himself! M-hmmm! I threw in another one of those Sherlock pills and it made sense: The guy, Louis Benjamin Falgoust II, oui oui Monsieur, c’est son vrai nom, actually sings in Soilent Green.
If you have not heard Soilent Green, go and listen to Soilent Green and report back. It might give you a good idea of what to expect, as the whole band’s sound is pretty similar: Not only is the singer the same, also the production was done by Erik Rutan for both bands’ latest output, so in both cases the d-beat / blast beat / double bass backed carpet-like guitars are very much alike. Which is also the reason why I’m hesitant to call this “black/thrash” – sure, the harmonies, and sure, the shredding, but the overall feel sounds very death metal to me. Before I call it “black/thrash/death” though, I’ll just say nothing at all.
Now while I don’t have a problem with the sound as it is quality-wise, I still think it’s the main lowpoint, as the whole affair is robbed of the savage edge it could have through sporting a fiercer guitar sound – actually something that I’d constate for Soilent Green just as much. That’s why the album borders on being too long: There’s just only so much blunt beating you can put the listener through, as good as it may be on an individual song level. I’ll spare you the “good old days where everything sounded oh-so-distinct” rant here if you promise to catch my drift as well as catch Goatwhore when you can see them live – I bet they fucken kill it. As for the album: pre-listen before “purchase” (ha ha), but definitely check it out. Under the assumption that if you are reading this, you like death metal, black metal, thrash metal or mixtures thereof. If not, your personal link has been hidden somewhere in this text.
- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: Metal Blade
- Website: www.goatwhore.net
- Band
- Louis Benjamin Falgoust II: vocals
- Sammy Pierre Duet: guitars, backing vocals
- James Harvey: bass
- Zack Simmons: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Collapse in eternal worth
- 02. When steel and bone meet
- 03. Parasitic scriptures of the sacred word
- 04. In deathless tradition
- 05. Judgement of the bleeding crown
- 06. Embodiment of this bitter chaos
- 07. Beyond the spell of discontent
- 08. Death to the architects of heaven
- 09. An end to nothing
- 10. My name is frightful among the believers
