Saturday 6 July 2013

Goatess - Goatess (2013) | 85%


The Goatess of Stockholm

The doom metal god Christian Linderson and his co-members formed this project in 2009 and in July 2013, Goatess released their first album. A work that will please most doom fans since it's mixing a lot of different influences. Despite their juvenile name, they truly deliver the goods on their self titled album and are offering one of the finest doom metal album of the year. Svart records knows who to sign and it's another good catch of the Finnish label.

You have no reasons to ignore this album if you're a fan of Chritus' old bands, be it Count Raven, Saint Vitus or his current other current project Lord Vicar (led by Kimi Kärki formerly of Reverend Bizarre). His vocals, a true representative of the classical age of traditional doom metal are as good as ever. His delivery, full of nuances is an underrated jewel of Sweden. Stop praising this old rubbish singer trying to make a buck in Black Sabbath and listen to what's really honest and well done. The songwriting is both rooted in doom and stoner metal. Nodding to trad doom, Sleep and Kyuss, it's nowhere near a safe album as far as doom is concerned, the oriental influences of ''Tentacles of Zen'' were very fun to hear and I almost wish they were more present throughout the album. They reminded me of Kingston Wall, this amazing now defunct progressive/psychedelic rock band from Finland.

The quartet lineup really works here, one fuzzy guitar is enough to keep me interested. It's also quite influenced by the psychedelic rock/metal movement that has invaded doom this past decade with bands like Naam, Blood Ceremony or Om embracing the LSD ridden rock of their ancestors. The songs are all pretty long, the album is culminating with two long ass ten to twelve minutes tracks and that's totally fine with me since it's a band who knows how to put atmosphere first. The album is a bit too lengthy though with almost seventy minutes of material but that's a mild criticism since everything is quite strong on it. It perhaps need some tightening at some places but it's a very soothing doom album to listen to. I prefer that over the not even thirty five minutes last Vitus album, I had to listen to So Long Suckers after this one because I was still hungry.

The bass is loud and in your face and it's appreciated, doom needs to be bassy and loud as fuck. The drums stay simple as they should be, why should they be complicated when they can be slow and feelsy like that ? The riffs are catchy when they're on more mid paced tracks like the excellent opener ''Know Your Animal'' and emotional for the lengthier songs. Contemplative while not losing their pertinence, they have this old school vibe that I love. Still, the highlight of this album is the vocals, they were personally the reason I decided to check the band and I don't regret it. Chritus' vocals are restrained and are giving the music the occasion to grow. They can be powerful when it needs to be but it rarely needs to since this album keeps this relaxing attitude


A very good doom album with nice stoner elements is what we have here. If you like your doom slow, rich and soothing, check out Goatess and kiss their ring. Their brand of baby demon music is interesting although grounded in the past.

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