To start, the split is seperated into 3 songs, a massive opener from Goya, No Place in the Sky, at 14:03, and two slabs from Wounded Giant, The Room of the Torch and Distheist, clocking in at 7:07 and 6:09 respectively. These songs are by no means little throwaway tracks, they are carefully crafted oceans of fuzz and attitude, with Goya’s waves of distortion and gain crashing continually against you, pummeling in a steady fashion. Goya is the successor to the throne of Electric Wizard, with less of a cathedral quality to the sound, as if they weren’t in a blackened temple of doom, worshiping those beast that rule beyond the plane of light we inhabit.Goya seeks to expand ourself through liberation of sound and a shaking of the fundament of the soul, with fuzz, gain, distortion all combining into a transcendent choir. They have a planet crushing sound, which they simply turn up, tuneout, and throw down with laid back ferocity. The guitar and bass are huge. To crank this one, is to hear what an angry electric god screams, as it warps the reality around it. Its massive, and the band just keeps the pressure up on what would be a marathon for other, lesser bands. The riff is held throughout, with some blazing lead work placed in sporadically, letting us hear the maxed out instrument scream for our amusement. And even though the same riff makes its home early on, these fine metal merchants are adept at keeping pace and rhythm fresh for the duration, allowing the music to breath a truly heady mix, and changing it up with a mix of of percussive and style changes sporadically throughout the 14 minute duration of the song. It could be a record all to itself!

Once it ends, Wounded Giant takes to the skies, to absolutely wreck the listener right out of the gate. Admittedly, I had heard nothing of Wounded Giant previously, so this was to be my indoctrination and education, all in on ego.They just attack with a ferocity, blazing away on the opening strains of The Room of the Torch, with a sleeker, rock based approach, than that of the doom strewn Goya. It serves them well, as their songs are a bit more dynamic, with leads, phat rhythm, and a spacey sound on The Room…, which ends with one of the coolest riff sections I have heard on any new release in recent memory, serving to really embrace a spacey vibe. Extremely fun to listen to, definite headbang material! As it slowly fades away into the aether, Distheist pumps up with some shouting and a massive ass riff pumping ou over some fast and furious kick drum. the spaced out sound stays around for this one, a bit slower, with a simple note pattern that makes my leg just come alive along with it. The vocals from Wounded Giant are awesome, as they use effects correctly, to enhance the delivery, not to polish or mask, but to make another dimension to their sound. Its impressive, and this song just continues upwards from there. They amp th evolume, the energy, and it just seems to swell, as if it seeks to become an almost white noise encompassign you, letting you float along to its inner cosmos’ winds. And that would be just fine.

Overall, the split is perfect. Both bands brought their A++ games to the collaboration, and gave equally 100% percent to the cause. Its something more than the sum of its parts, creating art such as this. STB Records has absolutely outdone itself with this release, which will be dropping on bandcamp first, about a week before the vinyl release. All details will be brought to you by STB Records, and the lucky outlets they deem appropriate! Stay tuned, or you’re just doing yourself a disservice.

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