To get my thrash kick, I often have to look outside the genre to albums that merge a thrash influence into the band’s work, such as with Paladin, Hammers of Misfortune or Vektor. Not to be forgotten, Voivod were way ahead of the game in this regard, and they are relevant to newcomers Nuclear Tomb in just how much this band looks backward. Is our Gator looking forward to a good dose of atomic riffage?
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Full 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…
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Hamferð – Men Guðs hond er sterk Review
Several of us at The Goat Review are fans of Hamferð and had Támsins Likam up high on our yearly list back in 2018, before the blog existed. Big changes to a band’s sound are naturally risky, as hearing it as a fan, what you liked about a band might simply be gone, washed away in the ever-shifting tides of the modern metal scene. Maybe the real lister is the friends we’ve made along the way.
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Engulfed – Unearthly Litanies of Despair Review
Sometimes, all the body needs is good old-fashioned, no-nonsense, no-frills death metal. Thankfully, Turkish death metal horde Engulfed has exactly what the doctor ordered: riffs, cool solos, more riffs, an evil atmosphere, and even more riffs. It’s easy to please those who seek the skeeze.
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Vanessa Funke – Remains Review
If you have heard of Vanessa Funke, then you have probably heard of her prodigious productivity. The one woman German melodeath act has released four EPs and three full-lengths in the last three years. It’s the sort of scheduling that leads to skepticism from many. Will her latest release prove disbelievers wrong, or is it all just funky business? Peat ponders.
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In Vain – Solemn Review
In Vain have always been a strange band. The degree to how extreme their blackened death metal outbursts can be is something that goes above the usual melodeath market. So sit down for a Norwegian weenie roast with our Metalligator and find out whether Solemn still serves hot.
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Mother of All – Global Parasitic Leviathan Review
Mother of All mastermind Martin Haumann didn’t have Steve DiGiorgio’s (Testament) services for Global Parasitic Leviathan, and men who write weird albums tend to switch sounds quickly.
So which mother are we to listen to this time?
Bongripper – 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.
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Maere – …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.
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Crypts of the Unknown: Animosity – Animal
