Germany’s Goath belong to that breed of blackened death metal acts who straddle a fine line between melody and outright nihilistic war on their songs. You’ve only to listen to their previous two full lengths to know that, as this Bavarian bunch inflict their third pestilence on the world that continues the plagues wrought by the previous two albums by improving the musicianship but also sharpening the songs, but not necessarily polishing them so to speak. Indeed everything about Goath is about being as punishing and destructive as possible, wreaking havoc via songs which blast out like fiery breaths from hell’s conflagration.
‘Symbiosis Of Vengeance And Guilt’ opens the album with a calm but disturbing fade-in piece, it’s noises and screeches being linked to some subtle guitar work before the inevitable and expected detonating wrath. Compared to the previous couple of albums this has a slightly smoother approach in its sound, but no less violent I must add, as the terrifying monstrous vocals erupt from the scorching inferno with corrosive malice. At times there is a frenetic nature instilled into the songs but highly controlled of course as the opener also brandishes what listens like clean vocal wails or shouts in the background.
Like the previous albums this was mostly recorded live in the studio something they should be commended for as it is this aspect that makes the ferocity of Goath so appealing and that much more organic as ‘Pretending To Serve Wile Raping’ continues the album’s onslaught. A much shorter track it is over almost before it has started but is crammed with riff changes and tempo dynamics creating that frenzied nature I’ve suggested earlier that continues into ‘Shaped By The Unlight’. Here we get a more upbeat style, almost catchy to some degree as the tune wields riff changes copiously that I found very akin to Immolation.
Compared to previous releases there is something that makes me say that this is album is more death metal inclined though the vocals still have that blackened harshness and malevolence, but the music itself possesses a slightly denser feel which might be down to the production generally. However, undeniably when this band hits the gas pedal, they unleash a force of nature unmatched in blackened death metal as ‘Epitome Of Perpetual Rage’ proves with its obliterating devastating speed change.
The continually evolving song writing by Goath means every song is different, each identifiable by its own structuring as I particularly liked the slower more atmospheric ‘Clitless Loyalty’ where the opening piece leads into unadulterated enraging violence that has definite Immolation traits due to the density, but it’s when they contort the track that it really twists into your head. Adjusting the speed, altering the riffing, morphing the tempos continually that make this tune such a standout made even more so with a clean like vocal insertion that is very effective.
Closing the album is a colossal doublet that starts with ‘Perception’, a departure in some sense with cleaner vocals that enhances the songs atmosphere. The slower pacing and eeriness captures a more epic feel as the overriding opacity of the riffing is reinforced by the drum work and continual pace changes. Concluding the album is the behemoth ‘Impregnated With Black Fire’ that clocks near the eight minute duration. Its doom death opening is saturated with morosity, funereally delivered within its slow pacing the song oozes that desolate misery initially where it gathers an intensity you can sense. The switch in tempo is excellent, shifting into melodic death metal territory this phase is ultra-catchy, utilising cleaner vocals again that texturise the song brilliantly adding so much depth that it becomes easily the best tune on the album even when it plunges into doom realms at its finale.
Goath’s third pestilential opus wreaks its cataclysmic retribution with songs that will submerge the world in an inferno.
(8.5/10 Martin Harris)
Leave a Reply