Search - Goatwhore :: Funeral Dirge for the Rotting Sun

Goatwhore

Stalkz | 10/07/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ahahah.. you think Cradle of Filth is black metal? Aaaaahahahahahahah



That's rich.



Anyways, yeah. Good album."

Something's missing

Daniel H. Ekman | Potomac, MD United States | 08/30/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Despite the somewhat low rating for the album, I am a fan of Goatwhore. I saw them at Art of Noise Tour 2 with Amon Amarth, Vader, Kreator, and Nile, and I honestly thought that they were the best live act there. That's saying a lot. As the previous reviewer mentioned, if you ever get a chance to see this band live, do it. Their energy, charisma, and precision is unmatched.



That said, I feel this album is lacking comparing to the excellent The Eclipse of Ages Into Black. That album was one of the best and most diverse post-millenium black metal albums I have ever heard. As mentioned, this band does a good job mixing various styles such as black, death, sludge, and even some doom metal. It's not even that the songs are terrible. Sky Inferno(track 6) is actually one of the best songs they have written. But as a whole, this album fails to stack up. This lies in a few factors.



First and foremost is the riffs. While they are still good, the tone of the riffs tend to blend together from song to song. Also, there are none that jump out at you as being extremely emotional or majestic, such as the riff in track 8(Name escapes me) of their first album.



Which brings me to the second problem; the production. The drums and guitars are too tightly meshed together in the mix, and as a result, both sound a little bit hollow, and lack the crispness of the first album. This especially hurts the riffs, and is possibly one of the reasons why they lack the atmospheric tone of their previous albums. It also hurts the drumming, which is also simply less diverse than the last album.



Which brings me to the final problem: The Diversity. While it is true that Goatwhore mixes styles very well, it's almost as if they put all of their styles into a blender and left them in the blender too long. As a result, none of the unique styles stand out and it sort of comes of as being half-sludge/half-death, with a touch of black metal influence. This also hurts the song structures and tones, which lack the variety of "The Eclipse of Ages Into Black." In fact, what separated that album from all other great black metal albums is that, while it had a very depressing atmosphere, each song was extremely different in both structure and tone, as were the instruments from song to song. One song could have grind drumming with black metal riffs and vocals, one could have sludge riffs with rock drumming and black vocals, another could have death vocals, riffs, and drumming, and yet another could have doom vocals, riffs and drumming. In short, grind/death/doom/black/sludge/etc. were all prevalent throughout the album, and yet, they are all allowed to stand out within the context of a depressing and hellistic atmosphere that marked the early 90's black metal hayday. The Funeral Dirge album is lacking the most in both diversity and atmosphere.



In short, if you are a big fan of Goatwhore, or even a fan of sludgy death metal, you will likely enjoy this. However, for black metal fans or fans looking for an introduction to Goatwhore, start with their first album. Hopefully, their Metal Blade debut will accentuate the traits of their first album."

This is awesome

Sepulhead | Boston, MA | 10/26/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I just saw Goatwhore last night opening up for Amon Amrth, Vader, Kreator, and Nile. I didn't know any of their stuff yet. They kicked ass! As soon as Goatwhore finished their set I went up to the merch booth and bought this cd. It's really good. I haven't heard EOAIB except for once a really long time ago, but judging by some of the reviews here on amazon, it doesn't sound too great. Therefore I think this one must be a big improvement because this one is insane. They gave me two stickers and a patch with the cd! You know you want to listen to a band called "Goatwhore.""