I’ve spilled many words about Goatblood over the years in a seemingly endless quest to describe just how maliciously ruinous yet gripping their music is. I have another opportunity today, because we’re premiering a new two-part album named Blooddawn/Annihilation Of This World.
Hatred, disgust, and violence have always seemed to be the dominating inspirations for this malefic duo’s bestial black/death metal ministrations, the more willfully offensive the better. The music’s not ostentatious or pretentious — quite the opposite, which is part of its primeval appeal. All those ingredients are again present and accounted for in this new album, but the two halves of it nonetheless present slightly different takes on the band’s core malignancy of sound.
After a demonically occult intro track, which involves reverent chants, percussive bursts, swirling ambience, and what sounds like the agonies of gruesome torture, the first half of the new album (Blooddawn) mounts a vicious yet head-hooking assault. The stomping and skipping rhythms are skull-fracturing and gut-slugging. The riffs are brutish and raw. The guttural growls and enraged howls are foul and ferocious.
In other words, the music sounds primitive and pernicious. But it’s hard not to get stuck on the hammering and bounding grooves, and the slashing and seething chords do exert a feral appeal, with enough melodic qualities to enhance their contagiousness. The songs seem to channel a kind of grimy, savage ecstasy (and to these ears there’s a lot of punk rock influence as well).
On the other hand, the second half of the album, Annihilation Of This World, is an even nastier beast. The first clue comes from the air raid sirens and machine-gun fire in its Intro track (someone might be hammering coffin nails too). Even there, we’re already in a war zone, and we stay there throughout the balance of this side.
To be sure, the songs still have their groovesome and galloping aspects, but the attack is generally faster. The drumming pumps out mortar rounds and heavy-caliber fusillades (and military snare rhythms), and the riffing is often a manifestation of vicious madness, grinding like flesh-mincing circle saws, scything like flashing swords. The solos spurt in spasms of hysterical derangement. The vocals are still utterly bestial, but sound even more rabid.
This side is primitive as well, stripped-down and bent on mechanized destruction, but a feeling of heathen joy still sometimes comes through even in the midst of all the mauling and mangling violence. Or maybe it’s just the joy of these sonic murderers reveling in their own brazen and barbaric energies.
Credits: Vocals, Guitars, Bass by Satanic Death Vulva. Drums, Vocals, Lyrics by Reverend Slayer. Recorded in Goch-Pfalzdorf in summer 2019 by Bone. Mixed in Essen in the fall 2019 by Din-Tha-Aeon at Quintode Studio. Mastered in Winter 2020 by M. Dahmen at Liquid Aether Audio. Artworks by Westphal, Ludwig and Grasenstyle Blood Artworks. Cover layout by J.S. Execut.
Blooddawn/Annihilation Of This World will be released by Dunkelheit Produktionen on December 14th.
PRE-ORDER:
https://dunkelheitprod.bandcamp.com/album/blooddawn-annihilation-of-this-world
GOATBLOOD:
https://www.facebook.com/Goatblood-492948934177125