New Orleans' GOATWHORE consistently deliver their brand of excellence album to album, along with their blistering live shows. Louis B Falgoust II (vocals), Sammy Duet (guitars), James Harvey (bass) and Zack Simmons (drums) are a lumbering mass of muck-encrusted abomination treading its way through the swampy mass of metal destruction. Just when you thought "Blood For The Master" (2012) couldn't be topped, along came "Constricting Rage Of The Merciless" (2014) to prove us wrong. And now...Holy shit...NOW...we have seventh album "Vengeful Ascension", an array of swarming, buzzing guitars, machine-gun drums and throat-ripping vocals ready to set the land on fire.
The tribal drumming of opener 'Forsaken' form into a thunderous malevolence to start the album. 'Under The Flesh, Into The Soul' is ritualistic GOATWHORE in all its essence, bleeding into our souls with the fury of a thousand monolithic beasts. Mid-paced title track 'Vengeful Ascension' holds its own, never losing its footing. The riveting, lightning-quick sonic blast of 'Chaos Arcane' delivers lines like "From the abyss I shall be born", a warning to any doubting their fury.
The great thing about GOATWHORE is...you always sort of know what to expect, while the band confidently takes a step in another direction, keeping each album fresh. 'Where The Sun Is Silent' is a slower track with steady drumming and melodic guitars, but with Falgoust's gurgling vocals keeping it all in check. 'Drowned In Grim Rebirth' is a foot-stomping, horns-up, hair-twirling celebration of everything we love about GOATWHORE. And 'Mankind Will Have No Mercy', with its epic guitars and breakdown of drums will bring even the barbaric males into musical orgasm. The album ends with 'Those Who Denied God's Will', an exhausting drum/guitar/vocal face-melt which will leave us wanting more.
The day GOATWHORE lets us down, whether by album or live show, is the day I hang up my metal t-shirts in the closet in my guest bedroom, close the door, and die a lonely death. That day, I imagine, will most likely never come.
- David Simonton