Goatwhore have been carving out monstrous black/since they emerged, and their latest offerings lean towards a more accessible thrash metal sound. Goatwhore really started as a pretty blasphemous war metal band, perfectly playing in the vein of Blasphemy, Bestial Warlust, Conqueror and Archgoat who have also been following a very similar path alongside Goatwhore, but their previous album and this build up total adrenaline undeniable power, enabling the music much heavier, and much more accessible. It's almost as if the uncontrolled brand of war metal has been fit into thrashy apertures that were carved out and with each release this crater grows and grows, thus effecting the path of the music even more. While for people who consider the bestial black/death sound this may not be very fitting, but in general the crushing thrash influence is one huge step up for Goatwhore as it adds additional chaotic elements to the music, emphasizing the diversity and straightforward force of the record.
Goatwhore have obviously parted from their original sound on this record, and it shows with every single aspect of the music, even the production has now turned into a spacious area that supports extremely robust riffing and decisive strokes of black/thrashing atrocity. As I said, this departure can only bring new and fresh faces to the music, though Goatwhore suffices with only a small dose of various twists. These guys have been dubbed as black/death, can hear that easily on their earlier recordings, but on ''Blood For The Master'', I'd say the death metal influence acts like a link, a chain that binds the elements together and gathers them up under one roof. While normally you'd hear outrageous tremolo pickings and absurd death/doom sections, Goatwhore sprinkles healthy doses of death metal upon the black and thrash metal influences that the album has a wide rage of. So, ultimately, the death metal attributes end up scattered around pretty much every aspect of the music but as an aura rather than a solid material that you could feel with your hands. In other words, there is no death metal riffing on the album, but the guttural growls and straight up, raw, carnivorous attitude of the album explains everything.
Otherwise, the album is dominated by riffs that come near to what we would dub as black/thrash. I hear lots of Desaster here and maybe some Destroyer 666, especially during the flurried, chaotic incursions of the likes of ''Collapse In Eternal Worth'' and ''Parasitic Scripture Of The Sacred Word''. The thrash influence is so prominent that you may even get a Sodom vibe from the music, and most of that comes from the intense croaky rasps that sound a lot like Tom Angelripper. Some songs and some riffs tend to take a black metal color as they are generally rich in depressing and melodic black metal chord and tremolo sequences. ''Beyond The Spell Of Discontent'' is such a track, it adopts that straightforward black metal sound in a much more strong way than other examples, but all songs emblazon with an intense punk attitude, savage, wild and brutal beyond belief. Each track holds a compelling force that could even fend off a charging rhino if need be. Although these blasphemers don't bring anything extremely fresh on the table, the spiking feel that listener experiences with each track is one way trip to ''Break-a-neck'' land, and the constant fuel of contempt and hate seems almost infinite. Goatwhore surpass any black/thrash (well almost a black/thrash album) record that I've heard this year, and now,since they've proved themselves for the fifth time, they can safely install themselves upon the throne of darkness, blasphemy and atrocity. The master is thirsty, and ''Blood For The Master'' puts an end to its voracious thirst.
Highlights:
Death To The Architects Of Heaven
In Deathless Tradition
Parasitic Scripture Of The Scared Word
Rating: 90%
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