Goatburner – Fatal

Written by on 25-10-2023 at 20:55.

Fancy a game of dirty death and grind, bubbling up from a sticky tar pit? Finnish Goatburner is serving your somewhat dubious wishes for the second time in a row. Four years ago there was the raw and primitive Extreme Conditions. Now Kaos (also singer of Rotten Sound) and Spider – who play liveshows with just the two of them – go one step further: extreme is one thing, but now they are going fatal. You hear it not only in the music, but also in the samples between the songs: people screaming in agony.

Although perhaps less grinding, the whole thing does remind me a little of Defecation‘s classic debut. This time not only because of the blubbering sound, but also because of the catchy humming melodies that occasionally escape the black hole production. Speaking of that production: on the debut, the duo claimed that the recordings were completed in three days, but now we hear that the album was recorded from May 2022 to November 2022. That doesn’t mean that the record suddenly sounds like an ’80s glam record. This becomes clear when (after a shrieking siren) the first attack on the guitars comes out of the speakers. Cracklingly overdriven, as if put through a cement mixer, to get the stomping but nicely rhythmic DANGER! started.

Pool of Blood was never going to be a ballad, but we are still surprised by the speed at which the track takes off. In the break that follows, a heavy pounding riff drives the last bits of blood out of an unfortunate victim (you can even hear the drops falling, so that the name of Autopsy (also cited by the band itself) presents itself, also in the constant alternation from slow to fast within two bars).

Anyway, those melodies. They emerge in the slow, dragging passages and dripping guitar lines of Disaster, which are invariably followed by short gravel outbursts over which Kaos spews his hateful vocals. In the slower parts he uses his lower death metal voice. In the middle we even hear a swinging passage. Yes indeed! It is a trick that is repeated throughout the album but gives each individual song the necessary variety. When Disaster slowly drags itself to the end, the conclusion can only be that we have heard the strongest song on the album so far. Attack is also a nice one (as far as you can say about that with this kind of music). The song starts – contrary to what the title suggests – with buzzing mosquitoes from the miserable swamp we are in (and for some reason don’t want to leave yet), slowly strumming guitar chords and a deep bubbling grunt. You can almost feel the oppressive warmth and despair coming from your speakers. This is a creeping, creeping attack that is rounded off with another killer, hummable melody in the guitar lines. It is simple, but oh so effective, just like Spider’s wood-chopping work, which goes a long way toward the end.

The question arises – again in album number two – whether a repeatedly shouted word (in this case Attack) can serve as a chorus, but the variety in this track and the guitar theme make this question more irrelevant here than with the first album. In Blender Bender, with another nice riff, they even seem to push the boundaries with a frequently repeated Blender Bender! And they are right, because it works like a charm amidst everything that is happening around it. The filthy closing track Dismemberment also works with fast tempos and grinding, grooving Bolt Thrower riffs that are strong enough to crush mountains (or saw through bones, to the delight of the maniacally laughing guy in the final sample).

Recommended for death/grind fans for whom music can’t sound dirty enough. Those who think that things have gone in the wrong (read: clean) direction with Scott Burns, who like their death metal without modern or technical frills and who are also in the mood for a bit of horror, can strike again for 39 minutes. rudeness and fury. Just in time for Halloween too!

 

Score:

80/100

Label:

Time To Kill Records, 2023

Tracklisting:

  1. DANGER!
  2. Pool of Blood
  3. Disaster
  4. Attack
  5. Revolving Reaper
  6. Lobotomized
  7. Morbid Angle
  8. Hateful Beaks
  9. Blender Bender
  10. Dismemberment

Line-up:

  • Kaos (Keijo Niinimaa) – Vocals, guitar
  • Spider (Jaakko Forsman) – Drums

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