Artist: Goathammered
Country: Denmark
Label: Blasphemic Siege Records
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2025
During my daily rounds through the deeper regions of the internet, searching for new demos to sink my teeth into, I found not one, but two new debut demos from Danish Black/Death Metal bands. In addition to Schizophrenic Warfare, there is also the charmingly named Goathammered. The three musicians involved have not provided any further information, so we will just have to make do with the music. And that is at least as charming as their band name, I can tell you that much.
In just under 10 minutes, the three lads give it their all in pure and relentless aggression, balancing between Death- and Black Metal. With its slightly monotonous character and almost prime-Marduk kind of drumming, the music might lean a bit more to the Black Metal side of the spectrum, but the rather throaty grunt gives it some Death Metal twist as well. While most of the wilder sort of Black/Death Metal bands do tend to have a rather murky and terrifyingly raw and organic sound, ‘Warghost Worship’ has a rather clinical and industrial connotation. To such an extent, even, that I was in doubt whether “Hellfist Barrager” is actually a drummer or a drum computer. Also the guitars have a pretty digital sound, which is not too easy to digest and I can’t really shake off the feeling that they missed a bit of an opportunity here to make it sound real dirty. But, maybe this was all a deliberate choice. In that case they forged something that at least sounds more or less unique, blending the machine-like sound of mid-era Mayhem with the relentlessness of the fastest Marduk albums with that barbaric intent of Death/Black Metal. A bit of a hotchpotch maybe, but certainly not bad for a start.
