To be perfectly honest, I’d never heard Goatwhore prior to receiving a promotional copy of the band’s latest full length offering, Carving Out The Eyes Of God.  My tastes in metal tend to lead me deep into the underground where only the most obscure bands dwell, very rarely do I raise my head high enough to peer above the surface to where the bands with greater popularity thrive.  Knowing that Goatwhore were growing in popularity and a favorite among many younger metal fans, I simply assumed this band sucked and never bothered giving them a listen prior to now.  To say I was surprised by what I heard when I finally bothered to give Goatwhore a listen would be an understatement.

Carving Out The Eyes Of God is 10 tracks of mid-to-high tempo blackened death thrash, with thick chuggy thrash riffs, thumping bass, crunching drums and rasp-snarled vocals.  Having given this disc a few listens, it’s obvious these guys were hugely influenced by Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, as several of those bands’ signature riffs are strewn throughout the album’s 40+ minutes.  Stylistically, Goatwhore play a brand of blackened death thrash very reminiscent of disbanded Swedes The Crown.

Goatwhore, like nearly all New Orleans-based acts, use a lot of tempo changes in their music, not settling for a particular riff for too long, constantly speeding up and slowing down.  One minute they’re blasting and thrashing, and the next moment they’re rumbling along, before breaking into some melodic riffs, before blasting and thrashing again.

Consisting of Sammy Duet of Acid Bath on guitars and vocals, the snarls and growls of Soilent Green vocalist Ben Falgoust II, Nachtmystium drummer Zach Simmons behind the kit and Nathan Bergeron of Scrotesque on bass and backing vocals, Goatwhore are an experienced group of musicians who clearly know their way around their instruments and know how to write a catchy, memorable tune.

The black metal influence is obvious as several tracks, most notably the title track, contain a heavy Norwegian black metal riffing and blasting style, along with the higher pitched rasps of Ben Falgoust II.  The death thrashing is very infectious and it quickly becomes impossible to ignore the catchiness of the fun chugging riffs.

The song writing isn’t completely flawless, as the album starts out strong but starts to fall a little flat mid-way through the album.  Tracks five through eight are nowhere near as captivating as the first four and I find my interest begins to wane and the music becomes more something to listen to in the background, rather than something that engages me, but there’s enough of the “good shit” to keep my interest peaked long enough to go through the full album without skipping ahead.

Despite some lackluster song writing on a few tracks, Carving Out The Eyes Of God is a surprisingly solid slab of blackened trash metal.  While it did take me a few listens to get into, once it clicked the album became rather enjoyable and I’m very surprised to admit I like this album and openly recommend it to fans of The Crown, hungry for something new catchy, heavy and thrashy to sink their teeth into.  If you’re into death thrash or blackened thrash metal, this is definitely an album to consider adding to your collection.

Review byTeufel