I'll admit that I am a little puzzled to what seems to be an ever growing fan base for Goatwhore. Don't get me wrong, it is good to see them finally getting more recognition, and being on Metal Blade, of course they would. Their latest album 'Blood For The Master' should certainly drive their popularity further.
Goatwhore has been pigeon holed amongst death/black metal bands for a few years now, but I have always found them to be more than that. Their first few albums especially always had a subtle crust vibe and even some of the riffs always had subtle doom trudges. As they have become more 'accessible' over the years, those elements seemed to have fallen away. On 'BFTM', I am hearing those elements again. The production still helps it sound 'accessible' to the ears, but who cares. It fucking rocks!
The first few songs rock out and tease with crusty black metal jabs and as the album progresses, things seem to get faster and the riffs become more scathing but can gallop or march out at times and pure black metal enters the fray. Perhaps the nail hammered into that arm has been dragged further up and now the blood is spilling and spitting out profusely. Even for the 'clean' sound, you can still feel the dark sickness, filth and grittiness oozing out of this record.
The dual vocal assault of Sammy and Ben continues to drive an interesting mix in the Goatwhore feel too. Blackened death growls that have a subtle hardcore edge to them which only further adds that, for a band that has a straight forward approach, delivers it to perfection considering all the different elements that linger around. Even the drumming does a good job to mix up the blasting and twirling fills with more rocking out beats.
No song really 'stands out' but that is because I like all the songs and there is plenty of mixture between those styles mentioned above that makes all the songs have an interesting appeal. Something that is firmly placed in black metal but the other styles lightly added in just gives the songs a bit more spice.
Like 'Carving Out The Eyes Of God', this isn't groundbreaking. Just another really solid, good album for a band that whilst being placed in the death/black metal picture, can still throw in their other influences in a subtle way and not sound all over the place. Hopefully Goatwhore can be the catalyst that exposes other bands doing similar (and in some cases better) and soon these other bands might get some more attention also.
Ikil
No comments:
Post a Comment