Last October we had the deviant pleasure of helping to announce the release of a debut album named Leech by the gore-drenched, horror-obsessed, Louisiana-based death metal band Golgothan, and to premiere the album’s first single, “Parent Organism“. And now here we are again, three months closer to the record’s February 4 release by Lacerated Enemy Records, foisting upon the world the second single from Leech. This one comes with a video that will endanger squeamish stomachs.
At this juncture the source of the band’s name bears repeating for those who might not remember. As disclosed by Metal-Archives, “A Golgothan (also called a ‘shit demon’ or ‘excremental’) is a fictional creature composed of human excrement. The creature derives its name from the hill where Christ was crucified; the collective suffering of the souls sentenced to death by crucifixion on that hill gives birth to the demon’s existence. The Golgathan rises from the collected offal secreted by each prisoner’s loosened bowels upon the moment of death”.
It probably won’t be difficult to keep that information in mind as you become exposed to both the foul and filthy video for this new single, “Bottomless Pit“, and the supremely twisted machinations of the song itself. To be clear, this generally mid-paced track is as heavy-grooved as a headbanger could want. Its jolting rhythms are inescapable, and from beginning to end they tighten their grip on a listener’s reptile brain even as they’re loosening your bowels.
But what’s equally inescapable is the mutated nature of the blaring chords and squealing fretwork tortures that help build those grooves. The deranged shrieks, gruesome roars, and ghastly gurgles of lead vocalist Jai Benoit and backing vocalist Jerik Thibodeaux add to the music’s freakish and frightening impact.
When the chords drag and whine in between jittery bursts, the music becomes sickeningly abysmal, and when the band erupt in a high-octane surge of battering drums and viciously seething riffage, you may imagine the feeding frenzy of maggots. But you’ll also encounter a dual-guitar solo whose swirling and soaring harmonies turn out to be as enthralling as they are weird.
Remember what we warned you about the video. It may cause queasiness in the stomach — and it involves a stomach in another way. You’ll also get a chance to witness the band’s own macabre appearances, which seem entirely fitting for the music they’ve created.
Three months is a long time between singles, and so we would like to cause further consternation among our visitors by again sharing that first one, along with a slightly edited reprise of what we wrote about it last October:
“Parent Organism” is an exhilarating, powerfully destructive, and fiendishly catchy discharge of death metal fury and mayhem. Most prominently, it delivers a terrific percussive beating. The nature of the beating changes rapidly, as if the band are quickly dropping one weapon and seizing another one; sometimes the punishing grooves sound like heavy-caliber automatic machine-guns, sometimes like jackhammers, sometimes like mortar fire, sometimes like a bomb going off or the thuggish slugging of crowbars. The speed of the punishment changes (with a few sudden stops and starts), but not the brutality of it — which is non-stop.
While that’s going on, the riffs and the moods change too, though it all sounds malicious as hell and frequently crazed. The guitars pulsate in a fever, savagely grind, brazenly blare and shriek, and augment the rhythm section by adding their own body blows. Meanwhile, the vocals veer in a rage (as they do in the track we’re premiering today) from malignant gutturals to strangled gurgles and maddened screams.
But the song isn’t without its melodic elements, which surface most obviously near the end, in a dismal arpeggio paired with a murmuring bass line which then rises in a, eerily mesmerizing and increasingly glorious guitar solo that provides a grand finale.
Pre-orders for Leech are still available via the links below. The cover art was created by vocalist Jai Benoit, who is joined in the line-up by the afore-mentioned Jerik Thibodeaux, and by Jesse Majors, John Leblanc, and Eddie Jacobs.
PRE-ORDERS:
BigCartel: https://laceratedenemy.bigcartel.com/artist/golgothan
Bandcamp: https://laceratedenemyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/golgothan-leech
GOLGOTHAN LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/Golgothanla
https://www.youtube.com/c/GolgothanOfficial
https://www.instagram.com/golgothanla/
https://www.twitch.tv/golgothantv