Goatwhore "A Haunting Curse" (Metal Blade)
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Thursday. Sep 07, 12:06 PM
A highly-skilled one-trick whore.

Once you pop this evil baby in, it’ll slam your body against the ground by the sheer power of those G-forces. Goatwhore hold no bars, as they supersede subtlety and metal traditional intros in favor of a decisive head-on attack designed to weed out the weaklings from the first second. It starts violently with no consideration for the listener: a blatant surprise that screams an intentional lack of refinement welcomed in metal. Comprised of Soilent Green vocalist Ben Falgoust, ex-Acid Bath/Crowbar guitarist Sammy Duet, bassist Nathan Bergeron, and drummer Zack Simmons, this New Orleans-based quartet plays black metal that focuses so much on speed, it leaves the listener grasping for some sulphuric substance. However, some deficiencies and lack of depth are noticeable once the listener gets deeper into the record: the problem is that Goatwhore offer no distinctive trait, coming off instead like a highly-skilled one-trick whore.

There is a lot that can be said about the skills of each individual player. Falgoust, for instance (who, following an auto accident, saw life from the uncomfortable angle that only a wheelchair offers), has one of those throats that’s not as deep and cavernous nor as high-on-helium as most black metallers, but can still deliver a brutal and raspy performance that merits admiration. To a certain extent, his approach approximates hardcore. And there is very little discussion about whether Duet can play guitar: the man is in his prime. During his years with the sadly departed and still quite underrated Acid Bath, he exercised plenty of restraint by focusing on grooves instead of speed, but with Goatwhore the man is out to avenge his past and give his fingers some well-deserved dexterity. Duet runs fast: he does his part with such speed, you’ll think he is being chased by the pot police. Luckily for the band, he’s got the right man behind him, as drummer Simmons gets a workout worthy of a private hour spent with Richard Simmons. The man fills every blank space with double bass drums and blast beat galore, but colorful and graceful he ain’t.

The problem with A Haunting Curse is its main virtue; the band can write a blackened tune as good as the best… but also the not-so-good. There is not much beyond speed, not a cooler track than the other, not even a standout cut or a song good enough to merit the cool-as-hell unfoldable artwork. There’s not a fucking way you’ll be able to differentiate between tracks, as they all seem to have been shaped with the same mold. A Haunting Curse was recorded at Erik Rutan’s (Hate Eternal) Mana Studios located in sunny St. Petersburg, FL, and its bestiality is totally unquestionable. What is in question, though, is the band’s ability to let the brutality come out naturally instead of forcing it by having only one principle as the parameter by which it should all be crafted: it must be fast.
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Hansel Merchor

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