Goatwhore – A Haunting Curse
Metal Blade Records - 11th September 2006
by Tom Strutton
A Haunting Curse is the third full-length album from New Orleans based four-piece Goatwhore, and their first for Metal Blade Records whom they signed with in 2005. Goatwhore started life with traditional black metal aspirations, most clearly evident here in A Haunting Curse's lyrics, but the sound here is definitely outside of black metal in terms of the stylistic territory it treads.
Even on first acquaintance A Haunting Curse sounds horribly familiar - don't expect to find anthing new or vaguely original here. Even the personality of the band as projected by the music seems borrowed, right down to their willingness to embrace an irritatingly conventional, yet unfortunately in vogue, 'neat and tidy' production value. I can imagine that Goathwhore are a spectacle of adrenaline and precision to witness live, but sadly nothing of the sort is projected here. As for the songs themselves...well, Goatwhore are clearly masters of paraphrasing the work of others. The songs that make up A Haunting Curse are largely formulaic patchworks of staple aspects from different metal sub-genres: - punk/hardcore attitude, the occasional traditional thrash riff, grindcore blastbeats, though mostly Gothenberg style melodic-death). Instead of employing these ingredients to create a new and interesting musical collage, Goatwhore create a confused ocean of anonymity. Put another way, A Haunting Curse looks good on paper but struggles to assert its own voice. Its hard not to be cynical in the face of such 'production line metal', and, at the risk of copping flak from Goatwhore fans, I'll be honest and say that these guys are the melodic death metal eqivalent of Bullet For My Valentine (who are the 'metal' equivalent of Busted).
Enough with the negativity - there are actually a few cracking moments and a few riffs that will definitely stick in your head. It's a pity there are not more tracks like 'Alchemy of the black sun cult', an exercise in confident mid-tempo brutality with an instantly memorable riff. Perhaps this track owes its success to its simplicity; it is definitely the most conventional on show here and displays a band with a lot of promise. For the most part it avoids the needless time changes that disrupt the flow of the other tracks (the only significant tempo change here is forgiven since it marks out the bridge of the song). Opener 'Wear these scars of testimony' is another fairly good track, with two fleeting yet excellent dischords forming part of one of the riffs (Impossible to describe which riff but listen close and you will hear them). A Haunting Curse would seriously benefit from more moments of harmonic expressivity like these, which could stand in place of the tired tremolo picked single-note riffs that are tragically interchangeable between songs. I wish I could have better things to say about the aforemetioned production value, the biggest problem being that the guitars sound a little too distant and would benefit from a more confrontational placing at the foreground of the mix. As such you may feel like a casual observer of events, rather than feeling like the music has control of you and is exercising its power and authority on you.
A Haunting Curse may appeal to the more undemanding of listeners, but you will want to avoid it like the plague if you are of the opinion that the metal scene is bursting at the seams with generic metal bands whose only purpose is to vent controlled aggression of the commercialy 'safe' tried and tested variety.
Most Positive Aspect: A really good track in 'Alchemy of the black sun cult'
Most Negative Aspect: See above
5.5/10
UM’s Review Rating Scale
Official Goatwhore Website
Official Metal Blade Records Website
Metal Blade Records - 11th September 2006
by Tom Strutton
A Haunting Curse is the third full-length album from New Orleans based four-piece Goatwhore, and their first for Metal Blade Records whom they signed with in 2005. Goatwhore started life with traditional black metal aspirations, most clearly evident here in A Haunting Curse's lyrics, but the sound here is definitely outside of black metal in terms of the stylistic territory it treads.
Even on first acquaintance A Haunting Curse sounds horribly familiar - don't expect to find anthing new or vaguely original here. Even the personality of the band as projected by the music seems borrowed, right down to their willingness to embrace an irritatingly conventional, yet unfortunately in vogue, 'neat and tidy' production value. I can imagine that Goathwhore are a spectacle of adrenaline and precision to witness live, but sadly nothing of the sort is projected here. As for the songs themselves...well, Goatwhore are clearly masters of paraphrasing the work of others. The songs that make up A Haunting Curse are largely formulaic patchworks of staple aspects from different metal sub-genres: - punk/hardcore attitude, the occasional traditional thrash riff, grindcore blastbeats, though mostly Gothenberg style melodic-death). Instead of employing these ingredients to create a new and interesting musical collage, Goatwhore create a confused ocean of anonymity. Put another way, A Haunting Curse looks good on paper but struggles to assert its own voice. Its hard not to be cynical in the face of such 'production line metal', and, at the risk of copping flak from Goatwhore fans, I'll be honest and say that these guys are the melodic death metal eqivalent of Bullet For My Valentine (who are the 'metal' equivalent of Busted).
Enough with the negativity - there are actually a few cracking moments and a few riffs that will definitely stick in your head. It's a pity there are not more tracks like 'Alchemy of the black sun cult', an exercise in confident mid-tempo brutality with an instantly memorable riff. Perhaps this track owes its success to its simplicity; it is definitely the most conventional on show here and displays a band with a lot of promise. For the most part it avoids the needless time changes that disrupt the flow of the other tracks (the only significant tempo change here is forgiven since it marks out the bridge of the song). Opener 'Wear these scars of testimony' is another fairly good track, with two fleeting yet excellent dischords forming part of one of the riffs (Impossible to describe which riff but listen close and you will hear them). A Haunting Curse would seriously benefit from more moments of harmonic expressivity like these, which could stand in place of the tired tremolo picked single-note riffs that are tragically interchangeable between songs. I wish I could have better things to say about the aforemetioned production value, the biggest problem being that the guitars sound a little too distant and would benefit from a more confrontational placing at the foreground of the mix. As such you may feel like a casual observer of events, rather than feeling like the music has control of you and is exercising its power and authority on you.
A Haunting Curse may appeal to the more undemanding of listeners, but you will want to avoid it like the plague if you are of the opinion that the metal scene is bursting at the seams with generic metal bands whose only purpose is to vent controlled aggression of the commercialy 'safe' tried and tested variety.
Most Positive Aspect: A really good track in 'Alchemy of the black sun cult'
Most Negative Aspect: See above
5.5/10
UM’s Review Rating Scale
Official Goatwhore Website
Official Metal Blade Records Website
