There is little risk that you will be deceived about the music we’re about to present. The band’s name is Goatblood. The demo is named Gasmask Devastation Terror. The artwork depicts a bullet-draped demonic form shrouded in eldritch energies and fire. Biohazard and radiation warning signs would probably have been superfluous.
As fears of nuclear devastation rise again after decades of dormancy, the release of Gasmask Devastation Terror is perhaps an example of being in the right place at the right time. On September 18th, thanks to Dunkelheit Produktionen, we can begin practicing for incineration.
There are 8 tracks on the demo, which follows two albums by this German band (2015’s Adoration of Blasphemy and War and 2016’s Veneration of Armageddon) and assorted splits and other demos. They are compact, with none reaching the four-minute mark and six of them shorter than three minutes. Goatblood need no longer to do their dirty work.
Their brand of black/death metal is lo-fi filth, a toxic and insidious stew of grim, buzzing riffs, pounding chords, and muffled, clattering percussion. Solos leap from this morass of malignancy like crazed vipers made of flame and plutonium. The vocals are a roaring, shrieking horror — merciless and hollow-hearted.
At times Goatblood cease their propulsive ravaging, slowing the rhythm — but only to make space for eerie, freakish guitar emanations. Sometimes they bolt into punk-like rhythms and chord progressions. Sometimes the drummer erupts in a frenzy of manic battering, and sometimes he goes quiet. Sometimes the riffs devolve into even more morbid, dismal, and pestilential tones.
In other words, over the course of the demo, Goatblood haven’t forgotten the appeal of dynamics — but they also never lose sight of their lethal mission, which is to assault the senses and mangle the mind until it can see nothing but an apocalyptic wasteland.
Dunkelheit Produktionen will release the demo on tape and digital. Get it here:
Pre-order:
https://dunkelheitprod.bandcamp.com/album/gasmask-devastation-terror