ALBUM REVIEW: Goatwhore - "Vengeful Ascension"

By: Jack Taylor


Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 23/06/2017
Label: Metal Blade Records

 

“Forsaken” jumps out of your speakers and down your throat and suffocates and entertains the listener in the best way possible. There’s nothing quite like what this band can deliver – the riffs, vocals and drumming is first class and unique

“Vengeful Ascension” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Forsaken
2. Under the Flesh, Into the Soul
3. Vengeful Ascension
4. Chaos Arcane
5. Where the Sun Is Silent
6. Drowned in Grim Rebirth
7. Abandon Indoctrination
8. Mankind Will Have No Mercy
9. Decayed Omen Reborn
10. Those Who Denied God’s Will

The Review:

Goatwhore are a lean, mean, blackened death metal machine and one of the genre’s most hard-working and consistent outfits. Since the release of ‘A Haunting Curse’ in 2006, Goatwhore streamlined their approach and created their distinctive sound which they are well known for today. ‘Vengeful Ascension’ is the Lousianan outfit’s fourth full-length since the aforementioned album was released, with thousands of miles of touring accumulated over this period as well.

The first impressions are decent – “Forsaken”jumps out of your speakers and down your throat and suffocates and entertains the listener in the best way possible. There’s nothing quite like what this band can deliver – the riffs, vocals and drumming is first class and unique. However, the following nine tracks have lead me to believe that perhaps these guys could do with a hiatus. I’m not just saying this because of my great desire to see frontman Ben Falgoust’s other band Soilent Green get back together again, but more due to the fact that Goatwhore are starting to sound a bit stale. Without wanting to be too harsh, a lot of the tracks on here sound like they could have been B-sides from the excellent ‘Constricting Rage of the Merciless’ and ‘Blood for the Master’. I’d go as far to say that unless you’re a Goatwhore diehard, it’s probably worth giving this album a miss and heading for any of the band’s previous four records.

Sure, I appreciate some of the more experimental moments on this album, such as the slower, doomier tracks which mark some kind of progression for the band, such as “Where the Sun is Silent”, but overall, there’s not a lot on here to really get me out of my seat. That being said, Goatwhoreare an amazing live band, and should they pass through my town any time soon, I’d have no hesitation is seeing them, even if they played a great deal of this new record.

“Vengeful Ascension” is available here

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook

FFO: Skeletonwitch || Soilent Green || Belphegor || Absu