GOATWHORE: CARVING OUT THE EYES OF GOD

Goatwhore is a band that makes no apologies for what they do. They are brutal, fast, guitar driven heavy metal that sounds like the audio equivalent of an out of control 18 wheeler flying down an icy road taking out cars and people alike. The band’s latest studio effort the delicately titled “Carving Out The Eyes Of God” is strife with the Motorhead meets “Technocracy” era Corrosion Of Conformity on the Black Metal freeway that Goatwhore do best. The odd thing is that even with such a dark and violent sound “Carving Out The Eyes Of God” is largely uninspiring.

To give Goatwhore their due they do what they do better than most. The problem is that what they do is boring as hell.  The album kicks off with “Apocalyptic Havoc” which sports an incredibly catchy riff over a blisteringly fast gallop beat. The song would be a powerful album starter except that it’s followed by nearly the exact same thing for the next nine tracks. Goatwhore change intros and a few time signatures but eventually every single song descends into the fast-riff-faster-beat style. About halfway through Carving Out The Eyes Of God you’re either lost as to what song you’re on or you just don’t care.

Power and “riffage” is only part of what makes a truly great metal record you also need songs and Goatwhore just don’t have any. They have cool guitar parts, neat mosh sections and violent vocals but none of it meshes together into anything memorable. You may think a song is really cool but once it’s over you forget about it as if you’d never heard it. Goatwhore don’t help their situation by falling back on a simplistic guttural barking style that is way over used in the current metal scene. 

There are some bright spots on Carving Out The Eyes Of God such as “Shadows Of A Rising Knife” and “To Mourn And Forever Wander”. It’s interesting because these two songs take Goatwhore out of there comfort zone and show that the band is capable of some really interesting work. Sadly they don’t venture out of that zone enough to make any real difference and it’s kind of aggravating that you know they can do better but just don’t.

I’m sure the metal purists out there will accuse me of either selling out or not understanding the true genius behind Goatwhore. I guess that’ll have to be my cross to bare. Being brutal, fast and dark is the calling card of too many extreme music bands these days; it no longer sets you apart. Goatwhore doesn’t have enough experimentation to be chaotic or enough solid songwriting to be memorable. They exist in that vacuum where they’re not bad and they’re not good, they just kind of are. It’s a place a growing number of metal bands seem to exist these days.