When it comes to the despairing sound of black metal who better to call on than riff overlords, Goatwhore. Being able to meld the frosty texture of black metal, with the buzzsaw sound a la Entombed all the while keeping that venom that is with punk and an almost hardcore groove. After releasing Blood Of The Master a couple of years ago Goatwhore have been writing their next release.
Constricting Rage of The Merciless is full of well heavy riff work, moving seamlessly from black metal blasting to almost two step beats in the chorus, with opener “Poisonous Existence In Reawakening” kicking off like a bullet out of a chamber the pace is pretty much kept up throughout, save for one “Cold Earth Consumed In Dying Flesh” where Goatwhore slow the tempo right down. Overall the album has some great memorable rhythm lines a particular favourite being “Baring Teeth For Revolt” with an almost eighties sound, harking back to the era that saw Megadeth explode. With not too much evidence that the boys in black have changed their sound it is still just as iconic, partly due of course to that vicious guitar tone.
Lead single “FBS” is a fast paced and very much punk feeling tune followed by “Nocturnal Conjuration Of The Accursed” which changes the tone rather drastically launching into the fantastic verse riff greeted mid way through with a tasteful and not too flashy solo. Whilst the album itself is a great record one of the traps Goatwhore seem to fall prey to a lot is that much of it is indistinguishable. Yes, you can differentiate the songs, but only if you really take the time with album to individually listen to each song from start to finish, otherwise there are vast parts where the same blast beats go over the same chords. Nevertheless that doesn’t make it a bad album, with songs like “Schadenfreude” which will get anyone’s fists pumping, whilst all the while remaining ever so slightly melancholic Goatwhore are with “Constricting…” on the one hand great song writers and yet simultaneously make it all too easy to forget where you are in the album. Not through bad song writing itself, more through the band and their sound themselves.
A great collection of songs that will really blow you away if you give them the time to get their hooks into you, because once they’re in they will not let go, but, if you don’t have the patience then it may fall by the wayside. Perhaps on the next album Goatwhore will finally break down the barrier and experiment with some new elements, great but not essential.
