Review: “Fatal” by Goatburner

Following an unholy trinity of demonstrations of Old School Death Metal with a twist of Sludge and Grind with 2018 EP “Time to Burn” EP, 2019 follow up album “Extreme Conditions” and 2022 EP “Danger“, the return of Goatburner is a highly anticipated one. Written between 2019 and 2022, slowly and steadily and mostly at the rehearsal sessions, the album was recorded and mixed by Kaos at Chaotic Doom Cave studios from May 2022 to November 2022 and mastered by Scott Hull at Visceral Sound Studios (Suffocation, Misery Index, King Parrot) in early 2023. The final product is the work of guitarist and vocalist Keijo “Kaos” Niinimaa and drummer Jaakko “Spider” Forsman, a duo known for their prior convictions in Rotten Sound, Morbid Evils, Age Of Woe, Ratface and Skulmagot who have more than 50 years of musicianship under their collective bullet belts across more than 10 bands…

…the air raid siren is a warning to be heeded as the Groove Death banger “Danger!” tears a hole in the cranium, a blunt force trauma of down tuned guitars and hammering kit work with a few tasteful screams thrown into the mix. As you might anticipate, a few psychological horror or exploitation movie samples are thrown in for good measure as this brutal assault on the senses begins. Playing with tempo, the savage “Pool Of Blood” hits harder than a prize fighter in between sections of sinister and menacing darkness with distant echoes of influence from bands like Carcass or early Entombed trapped within the caustic atmosphere. “Disaster” eclipses the opening pair of tracks as it surpasses four minutes of total annihilation. Sludge fuelled guitar tones give it a satisfying crunch, a monolithic Bolt Thrower like Groove interspliced with short, rapid fire bursts of turbulent violence and blasting ensures this one crushes like the bolder in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. As the flies gather around the rotting corpses, “Attack” crawls slowly out from underneath them, soaked in their blood and with a piercing look in its eyes. A barbed cut elevated by some moments of lead, it feels like the band are sharpening their knives in preparation for the kill with a Sludge riff laden Death Metal grindstone that builds into a frantic thrashing.

That formula continues into “Revolving Reaper” but with more refinement, the duo hitting their stride by the time the cut reaches its centre to create a fearfully addictive rampage through Old School Death Metal with flavours you know and love.”Lobotomized” feels like the slow dragging of chains across the floor of a dark, damp dungeon torture chamber hell, the call of the siren to imminent death with a Crowbar like mournful quality before reaching critical mass as the final third approaches. Reaching those Death Grind levels of insanity means this one hits like a wreaking ball, shattering bone on contact. The transition between the two speeds is slick, every moment of experience the duo hold between them in evidence, so having given us half a Death Grind track, the duo give us a full one in “Morbid Angle” because why not? and as the dust settles, the crows pluck out the eyeballs of the defenceless victim. Arguably the most groove laden of the tracks is “Hateful Beaks“, a tour de force of Groove Death as a genre which punches like a prize fighter with a few choice leads giving it that edge over the competition. It goes without saying that a restless and relentless Death Grind conclusion brings things to a frantic close but that is the way that Goatburner like it.

A fatal accident while using a blender is the subject of “Blender Bender” which is interwoven into the fabric of the albums over arching theme and narrative, fitting it like a glove on the hand of a well versed serial killer. If you were expecting an left field acid Jazz inspired cut to bring this album to its unnatural conclusion, then “Dismemberment” is going to be a bitter disappointment. A bludgeoning fit for an executioner played out at the tempo of the damned is what is on offer and it finds Kaos reaching some hitherto unheard bowel clenching guttural lows. Just remember, if your ex is killed by a falling tree in the forest with no one there to witness it, you better dispose of the chainsaw. This is good ol’ fashioned violence and great fun with it [7.5/10]

Track Listing

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

“Fatal” by Goatburner on 6th October 2023 via Time To Kill Records and is available over at bandcamp