You can knock down Goatwhore, but they'll keep getting back up, more pissed off than ever. Between frontman Ben Falgoust's two near fatal accidents and the destruction of the band's hometown of New Orleans, it's been a rough past few years. On their third album the band channels all those trials and tribulations into a scathing slab of unrelenting metal.
Goatwhore plays pulverizing blackened death metal that pays homage to the old school while still managing to sound contemporary. They transition from warp speed blast beats to mid-tempo death metal grooves and even slow things way down in places and veer into doom metal territory before stomping on the gas pedal and cranking it back up to maximum velocity.
Ben Falgoust's vocals are raw and angry and delivered with a healthy dose of bile. The other standout on this album is drummer Zack Simmons, who is able to handle both the high speed acrobatics and the basic thundering style that is the anchor of the songs. Morbid Angel's Erik Rutan produced A Haunting Curse, and he perfectly captures the band's dark intensity.
