GOATWHORE

GOATWHORE “Angels Hung From the Arches of Heaven”

By Dr. Abner Mality

It’s been 5 years since we’ve heard from the furry prostitutes but you wouldn’t know it upon listening to “Angels Hung From the Arches of Heaven”. It could have easily come out a year after “Vengeful Ascension”. There’s both plus and negative to that statement. Much like the recent AUTOPSY record, there’s a comforting familiarity to GOATWHORE’s approach and also somewhat of a “treading water” feeling.

This has all the aspects we expect from a GOATWHORE album, including the deft mixture of thrash and black metal elements, the barbaric vocalizations of Ben Falgoust, now known as Louis B. Falgoust II (almost expected an “Esq.” at the end of that) and the warm but clear tone. Much to their credit, they do know how to vary their songwriting throughout the course of the album, even though the album itself is familiar territory. Most cuts are fast and ripping, but can vary from the black metal sounding “The Bestowal of Abomination” to the driving groove of “Victory Is The Lightning of Destruction” to the chugging death of “Ruinous Liturgy”. Then there’s the more involved and melodic approach of the title track and “Weight of a Soulless Heart” where there’s a hint of the cold and Gothic. The closing tune “And I Was Delivered From the Wound of Perdition” is one of the doomiest tracks GOATWHORE has ever done...not quite a ballad, but pretty mournful, even though the pace picks up considerably at the end.

So although no real surprises are delivered, you can’t say the dudes have phoned it in at all. The intensity of Falgoust’s vocals never flags and new bassist Robert Coleman fits in so smoothly, it seems like he’s been there all the time. GOATWHORE is a solid, steady presence in the extreme metal underground.

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