GOATWHORE – Constricting Rage of the Merciless
- by Matt Coe
- Posted on 09-08-2014
The sixth studio album from Louisiana’s Goatwhore, "Constricting Rage of the Merciless" adds another 10 songs of blackened death/thrash to their catalog. At this point in time, you know you’ll get raging adrenaline fueled arrangements, intertwining sick blast beats, frantic picking skills, and caustic, speedy word spew. Some of the songs may be more punky like "Unraveling Paradise", while others evolve from doom beginnings into blackened death glory such as "Heaven’s Crumbling Walls of Pity" – so do not expect any signs of bowing to commercial pressure infiltrating the quartet’s sound. They even channel a little bit of the doom/sludge sound synonymous to New Orleans on "Cold Earth Consumed in Dying Flesh".
Somehow I don’t feel like the assemblage of riffs and hooks on this record spits out the ‘wow’ factor of 2012’s "Blood for the Master" – but I did dig a little of the Celtic Frost evil swing on "Nocturnal Conjuration of the Accursed". Good will be good enough for most Goatwhore mongers.