As our resident expert for everything death, tech, and brutal, will Scuttlegoat be the easiest candidate for reviewing an album that he knows he won’t enjoy? Or is that kind of masochism only reserved for a certain black metal loving bat? Will this be The Last of Scuttlegoat or will he transcend into Godform?
Read moreCrypts of the Unknown: 2024 Vol. 1
On the Goat Review, we try to prop up the bands that need it most. The unsung heroes of the underground — the weird, the whacky and the extravagant all find a home here. This is a collection of all our Crypts posts between 01.01.2024 and 14.05.2024. Don’t mind the worms, they’re part of the charm.
Read moreCastle Rat – Into the Realm Review
I was sceptical of Castle Rat at first. For an indie band, the marketing seemed just a tad too purposeful and calculated. The band just nailed what makes a classic doom metal fan tick, with the lo-fi VHS style music videos, the hokey image and the sound in general. What happens when a Rat and a Goat enter the dungeon crawl?
Read moreFull of Hell – Coagulated Bliss Review
This version of Full of Hell is more committed to one interpretation of their sound than before. This is the type of sound that some reviewers might be tempted to call “matured”. That phrase is usually a hack word for a reviewer so he can sell the idea to you that a band doing less is somehow good. But our Goat’s no hack and he’s got a lust for grind…
Read moreBongripper – Empty Review
Something draws our Goat to Bongripper. Something in his hooves demands revisiting their work and only with deep rooted meditation (sometimes with the aid of the very same herb that Bongripper seem to enjoy indulging in) can he find the reason why: it’s not weed. Or is it? Either way, the forecast is hazy.
Read moreMaere – …and the Universe Keeps Silent Review
The best works of dissonant avant-garde metal shed the harmonic framework of power chords, blues scales and chord-scale approaches to soloing to explore something else. Maere, however, do not manage the feat of deconstruction, an approach that, after the old structures have broken down, needs something additional in the new space. That is to say, the fancy prance of a young buck isn’t always enough to sway our Goat.
Read moreThe Vision Bleak – Weird Tales Review
Scuttlegoat has been a fan of The Vision Bleak for decades at this point. Their unique style of gothic metal inspired by the classic era of Universal horror films masterfully melds the usual overbearing cheese of the genre with an unusual crushing guitar tone. Is the forecast for the new album looking bleak?
Read moreBRUTALISM – Solace in Absurdity Review
BRUTALISM seem like they are committed to making quality brutal death metal. The band knows how to groove and how to construct riffs and manages to walk the tightrope between skronky technicality and groove with ease. But will our resident goat find solace in this brutal death metal?
Read moreVenomous Echoes – Split Formations and Infinite Mania Review
Morbid Angel, Howls of Ebb, Esoctrilihum, Portal and Ulthar all are imitated during individual sections of Split Formations And Infinite Mania and Venomous Echoes usually do so in a tasteful manner, straddling the line between inspiration and pastiche overall rather successfully. I have heard all of this better elsewhere, but the combination and variety is pleasant, even at the risk of turning into needle drop death metal.
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