Many groups have been assembled, picked, selected, whatever you’d like to call it, and labeled a Super Group. Many are good, most are just terrible, almost all end up just becoming a one-off and going Nowhere. Not so with Goatsnake, featuring Pete Stahl (vocals, of Scream and Wool), Greg Anderson (guitar, of the crushing SUNN 0))), ), Scott Renner (bass, of Sourvein when touring), and Greg Rogers (drums, of another super group, The Obsessed), as well as a little addition of soul vocal trio Dem Preacher’s Daughters, comprised of Wendy Moten, Gale Mayes, and Andrea Merrit, who have put together their newest album, Black Age Blues, and by coincidence, a blueprint for absolutely the perfect Heavy Blues album.
Goatsnake has long been held as a standard that many bands in the Heavy Blues, Doom, Stoner, and Fuzz genres strive to place themselves at, and with absolutely no wonders as to why. EVERY release has just raised the bar higher, even though we have had some hefty waits for each subsequent release (Black Age Blues falls at the end of an 11 year gap by itself!). However, it’s like waiting for a perfect brisket: Time + Patience = a succulent meal that one finds leaks ever more delicious juice with the following bites. It just becomes a heavenly experience, and is embodied on Black Age Blues. Goatsnake have demonstrated their master of the sonic crockpot, blending their signature fuzz-laden, heavy as fuck guitars with a rhythm section that could survive the apocalypse, paired so perfectly with a bottle of melodious vocals that add a complexity to the brains palate, wringing sonic bliss from such trifling things as speakers.
The album has everything you want here: it’s bluesy, there’s fuzz and distortion on tap for days, catchy hooks, power choruses, and vocals that make most radio bands weep in envy. Sonic Excess is embodied here, as Anderson’s guitar simply vomits out tone. That’s no understatement, as the co-founder of Southern Lord Records is no stranger to tone over everything, considering the only thing Sunn 0))) knows is tone and volume. Any combination has been explored and mastered by Anderson, and he simply gives, and gives, and gives from what appears to be a never ending well of groove, with a thick layer of riff added. Look no further than House of the Moon, track 5 on the album, as it’s just a massive black sky of guitar, with stars coming and going, born and dead, from the rest of the band, as you simply ride a cosmic wave of vocal superiority supplied by the venerable Peter Stahl. Speaking of whom, his talents run just as deep as any veteran of Southern Lord projects, he is a world class crooner and taps the very soul of Robert Johnson on Black Age Blues, and blows my expectations away. Coffee & Whiskey, Jimi’s Gone are songs that won’t stop bouncing around your brain case, and sound way better than me saying “Check out the whole album for how awesome they sound!”, which becomes harder for every second I sit here listening to this. It’s like listening to a more cohesively written Geezer album, I can’t find anything that is wrong, doesn’t fit, or just doesn’t impress my jaded sensibilities.
I’ll call the praise here, because I’ll just start dribbling glitter on my keyboard. Black Age Blues by Goatsnake is going to slam your head repeatedly into the play button on June 2, 2015, so stalk their digital order store HERE, Bandcamp, and iTunes.
