I love me a bit of Swedish death metal, and when confronted with a lot of the modern, slam and beatdown laden, cookie cutter death metal bands, I find myself pretty bored at times, and longing for that classic Stockholm sound, with its big fuzzy tones, and actual riffs. So whenever I see a band stating that they play what has now apparently become known as “Swedeath” then I immediately give it a spin, and so naturally that is what drew me to check out The Dead Goats new album.
I must start by saying that with a name like “The dead goats” and an album title like “All of Them Witches” I fully expected this band to be a bit of a piss take, with a light-hearted comical edge to
the proceedings (which is an approach I welcome as let’s face it, death metal bands trying to sound serious or intelligent these days is just cringe worthy) and the song “Dwarves in My Coffin” alone
confirmed to me that these guys are not taking themselves too seriously on the lyrical side of things, but to my surprise, when it comes the music itself these guys sound like they mean serious business.
Some serious kudos are in order to these guys, as even though I listen to a lot of fuzz drenched filth, on my first listen of this album I was convinced my speakers had blown, such was the onslaught of fuzz. The guitar tone on this album really is pure crunchy filth, in the best possible way.
But with the big fuzzy tones that are typical of this sound, I was expecting straight up grooves and not much else, and I would have been happy with that to be honest, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the sound quickly broadens in scope into something much more special than I had anticipated. The songs drive forward with punchy grinding riffs, underpinned with really strong melody and more intricate guitar work than I was expecting. That coupled with some vicious mid tone vocals creates a sound that brings to mind The Haunted, At The Gates, Entombed and Nasum all at the same time, which is an impressive achievement.
Another thing that really impressed me about this album is that despite the guitars being drenched in fuzz, the melodic elements still manage to be really well defined, and the drums and vocals all
stick out at just the right levels. It’s a very well balanced mix and nothing gets drowned in the distortion.
One other thing about this album, which I rarely mention when doing a review is the album cover. I love the cover art for this album. It’s probably just because I am a comic book nerd, and the art style reminds me of Hellboy creator Mike Mignola’s artwork. It’s got that gothic comic book art style, coupled with its morbid and bizarre imagery, which to me makes for a great striking album cover, and is a nice change from the standard blood and guts death metal artwork.
Overall this is an impressive outing, from a young Polish band who I can see having a very bright future. I will definitely be keeping my eye on these guys from now on, and I strongly recommend you do the same.
(8/10 Mark Gleed)
Leave a Reply