AFGM: HEAVY T.O. 2012: Goatwhore

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

HEAVY T.O. 2012: Goatwhore

I was fortunate enough to hit up the 2011 edition of HEAVY T.O. and even purchased the tickets before the band were announced. For some reason, I had a feeling it was going to be a good year :-)

Now, for these articles, I usually throw around some opinions and constructive criticisms. I'm going to keep all feelings aside and just report on some need to know facts about these bands to make your experience at the festival a little more enjoyable. If you know of someone going to the festival, pass the articles along and get them just as stoked as we are! For today, AFGM brings you GOATWHORE!

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Over the course of nearly 15 years and an incalculable amount of tour miles, New Orleans' own Goatwhore have inadvertently established themselves as one the most diligent and consistently ferocious bands of the 21st century. Forged in fire by ex Acid Bath/Crowbar guitarist Sammy Duet in '97, their storied legacy follows a dramatic —and often traumatic — series of lineup shifts, injuries, hauntings, natural disasters and an assortment of other mishaps large and small. But, driven by a blood oath to heavy metal and perhaps the powers of Satan himself, Goatwhore forever persevere.

Goatwhore is:

(Photo taken by Nathaniel Shannon)

Ben Falgoust - Vocals | Sammy Duet - Guitars and Vocals | Zack Simmons - Drums | James Harvey - Bass

Their journey began with the bestial Serenades To The Tides Of Blood demo and subsequent Eclipse Of Ages Into Black debut full-length unleashed over a decade ago. Then a five-piece comprised of Duet, Soilent Green vocalist Ben Falgoust, guitarist Ben Stout, bassist Patrick Bruders and drummer Zak Nolan, the band's stanch DIY work ethic, rigid tour schedule and the bludgeoning force of songs like "Invert The Virgin" and "Desolate Path To Apocalyptic Ruin" quickly spawned a maniacal cult following. By 2003, Goatwhore had systematically harvested a legion of followers possessed by the band's profound maze of unhallowed lyrics, Celtic Frostian rhythms, and blackened bayou swagger. Catastrophe–brewed sophomore release, Funeral Dirge For The Rotting Sun, bore a slower, broodier brand of apocalyptic menace; onethat trailed a near-fatal van crash that left Falgoust temporarily paralyzed and the future of the band in disarray. Against all medical odds, Falgoust regained use of his legs and the band, now a four-piece with Duet taking on full guitar responsibilities, quickly returned to their rightful place on the road. Seemingly drawn to bouts of misfortune, A Haunting Curse found the revised Goatwhore lineup of Duet, Falgoust, drummer Zack Simmons (ex-Nachtmystium) and bassist Nathan Bergeron, fleeing the debilitating floodsof Hurricane Katrina. Delayed but undeterred, Goatwhore's first Metal Blade offering proved their most volatile yet. Relentless in speed, precision and barefaced animosity, Goatwhore had traveled well-beyond the confines of conventional black metal with a thrashier end product that fully-embraced their long-avowed Hellhammer and Venom devotion without ever plagiarizing it.

Released in 2009, the sinistral Carving Out The Eyes Of God hit with titanic urgency. Hailed among the year's most worthy metal albums by fans and critics nationwide, Goatwhore's fourth long-player shattered mainstream conventions. The recordbroke Billboard Top 200 ranking in at #190, debuted on the Billboard Hard Music chart at #33, the Billboard Top New Artist (Heatseekers) Albums chart at #16, and the Billboard Top Independent Albums chart at #34. Decibel magazine declared the production,"the band's tightest, most guitar-driven offering to date. An unholy smorgasbord of rigid tempo shifts, gargantuan hooks, blasting black mass anthems, and Falgoust's soot and venom snarl…," while Outburn compared it to, "a modern day, 'roid-injected sword fight between Celtic Frost and Venom." High traffic web portal Blabbermouth crowned the production "…one of 2009's purest metal albums…nefariously black and sadistically thrashing in a way that is uniquely Goatwhore," while MetalSucks proclaimed Carving Out The Eyes Of God "the catchiest album Goatwhore have ever released." Furtheralbumtriumphs included a spot on the 2010 edition of Ozzfest and two performances at the annual SXSW music conference enabling the horned collective to deliver their sadistic hymns of religious treachery to an even broader sect of listeners.

For the next two years, the band maintained an infamously unyielding tour cycle, leveling cities throughout the US, Canada, Europe and Australia with their universally praised live rituals. Further educating the potentially unversed, "Apocalyptic Havoc" appears on the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 game soundtracks for Splatterhouse and more recently, Saints Row 3, while the video for the song was featured in an episode of Last Call with Carson Daly. And as if to close out a near perfect run of riotous adventures, Goatwhore was named Best Hard Rock/Metal Artist of 2010 at The Big Easy Awards last April, a deserving honor based on performance throughout the year.

(Photo taken by Aline Miladbnovich)

In 2012, Goatwhore again raise their cloven hoofs in salutation to Blood For The Master. Now featuring Duet, Falgoust, Simmons and bassist James Harvey, who joined the goaty ranks in 2009 following the departure of Nathan Bergeron, the record finds Louisiana's notorious metal horde at their most unified. Recorded and mixed at Mana Recording Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida with longtime friend/producer Erik Rutan, who worked with Goatwhore on both Carving… and A Haunting Curse, the ten-track, 38-minute Blood For The Master is epic in sound, mind and execution.

Released through Decibel Magazine's flexi series, and later posted online for the masses to absorb, a cover of Motöhead's "(Don't Need) Religion" was presented as an album teaser in October. An appropriately infernal rendition of an often neglected classic, the song served as the perfect precursor to an album prevalent in its hailstorm of fist-pumping, heathen anthems and rhythmic devastation.

Exhibiting a labyrinth of moods and meticulous tempo shifts, Blood For The Master is streamlined without ever rendering itself predictable. As memorable as it is menacing, the band's fifth full-length quite literally writhes under the weight of its own deviant heaviness. Led by the traditionally iconoclastic sermons of the leather-throated Falgoust, and made whole by its mammoth guitar tone, unconditional drum/bass battery and Duet's intermittent snarls of wrath, the record again challenges god's legitimacy/authority while further exploring the ritual of death. Conveyed with a poetic, near occultish grace, songs like violent opener 'Collapse In Eternal Worth,' 'Embodiment Of This Bitter Chaos,' and 'In Deathless Tradition' finds Falgoust, dubbed 'one of the best live and recorded singers in metal history,' by notable Canadian website Hellbound, in full domination mode. 'I always have a lot of words,' he elaborates. 'I don't like repeating things but I've started doing more chorus-verse-chorus stuff. I started letting the music breath more.'

'It's not like the new songs are a drastic change,' Duet noted in an early interview with Decibel Magazine. 'It's like an experimentation on how much more metal we can get – I mean actual metal; the roots of heavy metal. But not in a way that it sounds like power metal or anything like that. It's like an extremely metal version of us.'

'I thought this was a lot harder to write just because we didn't want to repeat ourselves,' he further notes. 'I mean, we could have easily gone and written another Carving Out The Eyes Of God but we didn't want to do that. There are still elements on the new album that we wouldn't normally do, but it definitely still sounds like us.'

'It's definitely harder at this point,' Falgoust agrees of the writing process, 'because you start to get to the point where you're a little older and more conscious about your ideas and everything; you become more anal about things. I'm still getting used to it, but I really like it. I like the flow. When we write, we try to think of it in a live approach. A lot of people write records but they never really focus on playing it live but that's so important. We can do all of these songs live, which is something we did with Carving… as well.'

'I think sometimes we get slighted for stuff' Falgoust continues on where the band now fits within metal's ever expanding pantheon of subgenres. 'Whatever terms people decide to lock us into— black metal, death metal, black death metal, everyone's gotta have some kind of little blanket. It's almost like a social standing. To me, it's all just straight heavy metal.'

Goatwhore will be touring in support of their fifth full LP, "Blood For The Master", which was released on February 14th, 2012 via Metal Blade Records. All I have to say about this album is...INTENSE. The album hits you in the face like a wake up call. Anyways, check out the track listing and album artwork below (followed by album reviews):

1. Collapse in Eternal Worth

2. When Steel and Bone Meet

3. Parasitic Scriptures of the Sacred Word

4. In Deathless Tradition

5. Judgement of the Bleeding Crown

6. Embodiment of This Bitter Chaos

7. Beyond the Spell of Discontent

8. Death to the Architects of Heaven

9. An End to Nothing

10. My Name Is Frightful Among the Believers

(When Steel and Bone Meet)

"Goatwhore are another one of those bread-n-butter type bands. Take some great riffs, furious vocals, then let them loose at top speed. When it's done wrong, it's boring as shit. When it's done right - like Blood For The Master, it's just pure, angry fun.

Goatwhore aren't a band to pull any M. Night Shyamalan shit on you. If you didn't dig their brand of American sounding riff-based black/death/thrash hybrid before, more specifically, if you didn't enjoy Carving Out The Eyes Of God, there isn't much of a chance you'll be turned around for this one. Then there might be some of you much like myself; you enjoyed the overall sound, but couldn't find yourself attached to individual songs. Well, that is totally remedied on here. Blood For The Master is to Goatwhore what Forever Abomination was to Skeletonwitch; not a band drastically reinventing itself, but a band just finding and exploiting their strengths to an extent they couldn't manage before. On Blood For The Master, Goatwhore are just as vicious as ever, but with an ass load of some of the catchiest riffs you could bang your head to. Example? Put on "When Steel And Bone Meet", it becomes pretty self-explanatory from there.

As with any bread-n-butter albums, Blood For The Master does have its dry moments. It's understandably difficult filling an entire album when you haven't got any gimmicks, or avantgarde elements to work with. The impressive part is how few the dry moments actually occur, and that's where we see Goatwhore really step up with this one. Like some straight-forward, top speed thrashy black/death n roll with riffs so aggressive & catchy they make Joel Grind jealous? Then definitely give Blood For The Master a listen." -Metal Storm

"'Blood for the Master' holds so many surprises that I had to listen to the album again and again just to hear them all. In addition to Sammy letting loose his guitar, for instance, vocalist Ben Falgoust changes styles during some moments. He hisses softly and menacingly during breakdowns in “Judgement of the Bleeding Crown" that are punctuated in a nearly militaristic march style by guitar and drums, and in “Embodiment of This Bitter Chaos,” the usual over-lay of the vocals is not present. Instead, Ben utters short phrases sporadically in a nearly hardcore style that provides a change-up that needs to be listened to closely. Other elements of the song are also not typical for the band, which begins with a slow fade in with acoustic guitar that adds a silvery and sad lining to a wailing electric guitar before going into the namesake chaos.

'In Deathless Tradition' and 'Judgement...' have fairly slow tempos for a band that is known for incredibly fast playing in the style of the black metal progenitors, but that slow beat only makes for a more intimidating sound. Drummer Zack Simmons does very well keeping up with the switching between genres and tempos without any loss of ability during songs like the more distinctive 'Beyond the Spell of Discontent' and early metal-inspired sections.

The CD and vinyl album also features striking artwork by tattoo artist Jordan Barlow. 'Blood for the Master' shows the band’s foray from pure black metal into a love for classic metal.

Highs: Great mix of black and classic metal that Goatwhore hasn't done before.

Lows: Not the pure black metal the band is known for.

Bottom line: 'Blood For The Master' is one of Goathwore's best albums." -Metal Underground

(Photo taken by Aline Miladbnovich)

"For those who are heading out to one of Goatwhore’s many shows coming up this year, I recommend looking for them to play 'Death to the Architects of Heaven.' This entire song was basically a giant circle pit to me and I could literally see it pan out in my head how it would look. The following track, 'An End to Nothing' offered the same feeling to me with that heavy use of thrash elements such as the amazingly fast guitar work from Sam Duet and thrash beats from Zach Simmons behind the set.

So if you have read this far, and you don’t know if this album can stack up to the past two; then let me break it to you easily. Buy this fucking album! While you’re at it, buy tickets to the shows, buy their merch, wear it proudly, and spread the word! I can safely say I like this album the best out of all of their work so far (not to trash on past work because I love that too). And I can also safely say that you, the listener, will probably agree with me on this one. If not better than the past releases, then it certainly meets expectations without any doubt." -Thrash Mag