Lousiana’s Goatwhore are four of the most metal-avid and intellectually radical gentlemen I’ve ever met. Months ago they convinced me that their new album was going to be awesome yet I’m still surprised at how impressive it is. Goatwhore have a special way of always improving their sound and strengthening their power. For them, metal isn’t something that’s done and done, it’s a process where each album is another step closer to achieving a full body of extreme metal mastery. They’ve done it. Constricting Rage of the Merciless is a masterful work of extreme metal.
The mighty Ben releases his most brutal guttural vocals, Zack aggressively pummels the drums (have you seen the dude’s arms? He’s built to beat the drums), Sammy tears up the guitar like the madman that he is and James keeps the chaos semi-steady with his enigmatic bass rhythms. These metal-driven maniacs make a damn good band.
As seen in the “FBS” lyric video, “Ejaculate the semen that will corrupt, fucked by Satan!” Yep, those are straight-up Goatwhore-esque lyrics right there. Don’t be alarmed, you won’t be fucked by Satan, however your ears are pretty much fucked by Goatwhore. Once hearing their latest work there’s no reversing the damage done to your stance on extreme metal and nothing of the sort can stand up to their witty and ferocious punch. Songs like “Baring Teeth for Revolt” expose their devilish savagery. It’s one of the more furious songs on the album but even the milder like “Cold Earth Consumed in Dyin” end up about as heavy as the others. Goatwhore don’t play nice, they barbarically rage.
Constricting Rage of the Merciless won’t disappoint anyone who’s liked Goatwhore before and will probably lure in new fans, don’t miss out on this fantastic ten song spread. Few folks realize how serious they are about metal lyric-wise, riff-wise and everything else that goes into it. Then again, you can only take a band called Goatwhore so seriously but maybe that’s yet another reason to respect them. Constricting Rage of the Merciless speaks for the band and everything they’ve done, how they’re always moving forward and allow nothing to hold them back or push them around. Mercilessly rage with Goatwhore.