The Dead Goats - Path of the Goat

THE DEAD GOATS - Path of the Goat (Instant Classic - CD 2012)

I got interested in this band only because it’s been recommended to me by a friend. Well, I was a bit sceptic at first, but once I listened to a couple of samples of youtube or somewhere else, can’t remember now, it turned out that the music is so good that I just had to get the whole album. I had to be hurry, as the CD is quite limited, so I quickly putted my order… and he it is, nice digipack in my hands and the disc is already in the player. They’re called The Dead Goats and “Path of the Goat” is their first release. By the look on the artwork for “Path of the Goat” you would probably think they’re sludge, doomy, stoned kind of band… the artwork is very colourful and the drawing is just completely different to what you would expect from the old school death metal band! And I must admit that looks really cool, I think. I like it a lot. Sure, there’re no zombies, guts, no blood and dismembered bodies… also no priest has been hanged on the tree… but still, the artwork for “Path of the Goat” looks just damn cool, to me and I guess it is a great advantage if the band creates something different within this niche called “old school death metal”.

So, don’t expect stoned doom metal here, The Dead Goats are 100% archaic, old styled Swedish sounding death metal. The band goes way back to the origins of this style, in my opinion, and just like bands like Death Breath, Bombs of Hades and Bastard Priest, they also do take a lot of influence from the crust, hard core (which were the styles which influenced the early death metal bands a lot, with bands like Amebix and Wolfpack), with all that D-beat shit, which is so characteristic and memorable. Obviously it has been mixed with the classic Swedish death metal bands (Dismember, Nihilist, Entombed) plus clearly also with Autopsy and Repulsion. So, it may seem like it’s nothing new, but I think that The Dead Goats have enough of their own identity and quality to stand above the majority of old styled bands, which flood the scene nowadays. Besides, they’re just different to all those great bands like Graveyard, Tormented, Undead Creep, etc. It’s probably because quite often that core / punkish influence is almost dominating here and when you hear D-beat with simple riff and some vocals, which occasionally also sound more like a hard core’ish scream rather than the classic death growl, then it really makes the difference. For example the first song “Lullabies for the Damned” will sound more like punked Autopsy and Murder Squad rather than Dismember.

Anyway, the riffing on the entire album is really great; I like the energy of this music and its atmosphere, with this killer guitar sound, which is so characteristic for so many Swedish productions. Obviously The Dead Goats doesn’t discover anything new, but their music is really cool and I think that if you like bands, which I mentioned above and also Usurpress, who all I think have quite a lot in common with The Dead Goats, then “Path of the Goat” will really be your thing! More so, there’re enough dismemberized riffs to make the classic Swedish death metal maniacs sweat and scream in excitement and some of those riffs will even more melodic, but this melody is not really too epic and memorable like it happens in bands like Lifeless or Undead Creep. For example the third song, “Rapture Corrupted”, will seriously kick your ass with some awesome riffage in this style… This music is filthy and obscure, punked death metal and such songs as “Even Death May Die” (which starts with a nice piano theme, followed by some classic Swedish, Dismember-esque, riffs!), “The Goat is Dead Long Live the Goat” are real highlights… Finally “I am Gangrene” is just fuckin awesome song (my favourite from the whole CD), which always makes me bang my head like crazy… and I can go on and on like that; the whole material on “Path of the Goat” is very even and there’s no bullshit anywhere here… For sure this is one of the best Polish releases of the recent years and I guess here in this country it also is something quite original, no one else plays like The Dead Goats in Poland! So, get the CD if you want, or maybe a tape version (which comes with a pencil with band’s logo on it hehe) – I guarantee you’ll like it.

Standout tracks: “Even Death May Die”, “The Goat is Dead Long Live the Goat”, “I am Gangrene”, “Rapture Corrupted”

Final rate: 78/100