When bands decide to combine genres, sometimes the results are quite mixed. It goes multiple directions, not always working to the best of any genre, and that makes my heart sad. Ghoulgotha looks to combine some old fashioned death metal and doom on their new release, The Deathmass Cloak, and the results are better than expected!
As I said, mixing genres comes with mixed results. Usually a band will favor one genre style over the other, and then as almost an afterthought, try and shape the other genre to how they already sound. This can destroy a release (SEE: newest Korn albums), and doom a band from the get-go. Ghoulgotha has chosen wisely on THe Deathmass Cloak, and used two genres that share many comonalities: Doom metal, and Death metal. For those unfamiliar with how these two genres could possibly mate successfully, there are quite a few death bands that slow the Chug enough to make the unholy union work pretty well. And on the flipside, not all doom is super sludge slow, just look at High On Fire. Rumors of War and Snakes for the Divine are super fast, and they fall under the Doom heading. And no, they aren’t quite like HOF.
Ghoulgotha sound more like older Suffocation that just decided to slow it down a bit, and hold some super fuzzy chords. They have a fast attack that balances out into some excellent blackened doom sections that slow the timing down to falling through space paces. The songs are well done, and they have an earlier death metal sound going. The record sounds like the band was in the hallway, cranked up, and just sheeding plaster from the ceiling and walls, while the singer has the old school gravel going. It’s like a cement mixer learned English. Overall a great sound for what they are wanting, I dig the hell out of it!
Again, as I stated above, their format is sped up sections of pure death metal violence, which then just transition right into some classic doom thrumming. A great example is Citadel of Heathen Flesh, which this has to be said: Ghoulgotha wins the award for cool song/band names. The song is more doom-centric, but highlights the way they weave their sound together. It’s much slower than, say, Cartilage Imperfect, which follows it. Citadel stays pretty firmly in the slow lane, letting the overdriven nastiness they love just fill space and roll over their blasted wasteland of an album, with certain sections ramping up speed to some riffage. The aforementioned Cartilage flips around and focuses more on the death metal speed, like older Cannibal Corpse, or what Bongzilla likes to do a lot. It has a lot more bite in the sound, more low end than most modern bands. The only spot this is different is the ending track, Levitate Within the Curse. This song is th emost old school feeling, and sounds like a true basement tape. Its similar to a Hooded Menace or Ghoul song, just very rough and low production, and has added synth and digitation that makes it feel slightly like an old horror soap opera being played out. It creeps and runs liek a horror script, perfectly chasing the listener while they watch the carnage being played out. It’s a really fun song to end the record on.
The whole album has a solid feel to it, it doesn’t sound amatuerish, or like it was cobbled together by different people at different times, its very cohesive in sound and production. If you know someone, or are that someone, who loves a more vintage take on doom or death metal, you’ll really like this release.
Album available wherever music is sold, especially at digital retailers internet wide!
