Goat

Nunslaughter are a band I’d define as “underground heroes”. They never quite hit it big, but have nevertheless amassed a small horde of incredibly loyal fans, which they’ve been liberally showering with material over the years. Admittedly, most of it is splits and live recordings, whose importance to the band’s canon is trivial at the best of times, but even this approach has resulted in some gems being hidden throughout their catalogue. That being said, the real meat is in their full-lengths, which are never above the 35-minute mark (discounting disc 2 of Angelic Dread), of which Goat stands tallest.

To anyone who (for some reason) hasn’t been acquainted with the band yet, their sound is as straightforward as it gets. Brief and simplistic bursts of intensity that bring to mind death metal’s formative days, where it was yet to be divorced from thrash, with some punk influences sprinkled throughout. It’s not a particularly elaborate experience, but it’s executed with such gusto that it’s hard to not be swept up by the charisma the band exudes, especially with how catchy these tracks are. For how primal things here are, there are a lot of earwormy riffs and vocal lines to grab on to throughout. You just can’t help but bark along with the Don of the Dead on tracks like “She Lives By Night”, “Raid the Convent” and “Satanic Slut”, where the energy is through the roof. Even the riffing, heavily informed by bands like Possessed and Sarcófago has a pugilistic character to it, whether it’s going full-steam ahead on rippers like “The Crowned and Conquering Hag”, or slowing down to a malevolent crawl on “Ritual of Darkness” and “Thou Art in the Kingdom of Hell”.

That being said, Nunslaughter’s barebones and primitive modus operandi does lead to a few songs here and there getting overshadowed by others that are just better, no two ways about it. While “Immune to Poison” and “The Guts of Christ” showcase the band’s punk ethos at work, they lack in staying power, and the stomping “The Sephiroth” is the closest we get to boredom here, with its chunky mid-tempo going on for a bit more than it should. Nevertheless, they’re fun tunes and don’t affect the record’s pace too much, they simply fail to stick after all is said and done.

Goat is an ode to the old-school. No frills, no tricks, just a bunch of dudes playing raw and dingy sounding death metal that brings to mind the past. Despite that though it holds its own and has plenty of staying power, owing to its purity and the attitude behind it. It’s not an album for people looking for anything resembling intelligence, but for those who love having a fun time while immersed in the spirit of a time long behind us. If you love metal that’s been ripped straight from the genre’s primordial soup, you owe it to yourself to listen to this album, and all of Nunslaughter’s full-lengths for that matter.

Highlights: She Lives By Night, Raid the Convent, Satanic Slut, Thou Art in the Kingdom of Hell

The second full length from the American death metal band Nunslaughter is in my opinion a true underground gem that stands out among millions of mediocre and over-produced acts. Nunslaughter is also known for their prolific career releasing a great number of demos, eps and splits with high quality all in the name of the dark lord. Goat is the demonstration of the philosophy of the less is more and it really succeed in the attempt to create a colossal recording with a very organic, simple and in your face production.

The album is full of memorable tunes that will let every soul who dares listening to it begging for more! The whole blasphemous experience contains 15 nails to hammer the coffin of Christianity and it lasts 31 minutes. The songs are short but effective, there is not fat or fillers what so ever, no useless guitar solos or unnecessary drum fills. Goat starts with “The Crowned and Conquering Hag” which is the warning of what´s to come, death metal in its purest form. The instrumentation is the basic one: guitar, bass, drums and the sacrilegious vocals of Don of the Dead that does not need to scream like a cat or give you the cookie monster over used vocals to hook you into the Nunslaughter coven. The drums sponsored by the almighty Jim Sadist (R.I.P) are amazingly organic, you almost feel as if the drummer is playing next to you. Guitars are driven by catchy riffs that make you play the recording on and on. I consider the album is divided in two types of structures. On one hand, you can find fast songs like the opener mentioned previously; other examples are “You Bleed”, “She Lives by Night”, “Satanic Slut” and “The Guts of Christ”. On the other hand, you can also find slow bangers like “Church of Disgust” and “The Sephiroth” that make the overall experience varied and entertained.

Lyrics are focus on hating the Christian faith and exalting satanic related themes which fit like a glove into the band’s musical concept. The feeling when you go over the lyrics is even funny and mockery type; for example, take the lyrics in the song Satanic Slut. The band plays with satanic concepts but in a hilarious way:

“The bitch of hell starts to grin,
She can turn a holy man to a world of sin
Taste the sweet nectar that comes from her hole
First you loose your body
and then you loose your soul”

Some other examples of the way Nunslaugter approach lyrical themes are “Jesus is Doomed”, “Sacrificial Zombie” and “The Guts of Christ”. However, Don´t get me wrong, there is a bunch of songs that takes things more seriously in terms of lyrics and summons darkness. For instance, “Ritual of Darkness”, “Angel Hunt” and “Immune to Poison”.

Altogether, Goat is an amazing death metal effort that will let you begging for more! Catchy riffs, organic drums and blasphemous omens as vocals are the weaponry that Nunslaughter uses with no pretentions. There is no room for over produced music here, less is more and the devil is in the details; Nunslaugter demonstrates how to execute evil death metal. So, Please Archspire guys stop farting in my death metal; make yourself a favor and go listen to this gem!

If Satan ever held auditions for a house band, Nunslaughter (that’s Nun Slaughter, not Nun’s Laughter!) would be in the top three finalists. The long running death metal act has dubbed their music as “Devil Metal” and it’s easy to see why. Their lyrics make Deicide look like Stryper in comparison, with song titles like “The Guts of Christ”, “Jesus is Doomed”, and “I Hate Christians” pretty much affirming where they stand in regards to the Church.

One interesting thing about the band is the fact that they still use the old school death metal vocal style, not growling but instead using deep, harsh vocals that are actually easy to understand. This goes a long way in getting their message across and might even make them more accesible to those turned off by the usual death metal growls. The music itself is also old school death metal but with a nice thrash influence. It’s simple and primitive and that’s the beauty of it.

Goat is generally considered their masterpiece and it’s easy to see why. Most of the songs are actually catchy, at least as catchy as evil sounding death metal can be. The album starts with what sounds like a trip down to the bowels of Hell before launching into a nice, thrashy riff. From there the album refuses to let up and recalls Slayer’s “Reign in Blood” with the way the songs flow into one another. The longest song here is just a shade over three minutes, so nothing wears out it’s welcome. But even with such short run times, the songs feel fully fleshed out. There are sixteen songs, but no wasted riffs nor a wasted second. Each song comes in, commands you to bang your head in the name of Satan, and disappears into the night leaving you satisified. And check out that album cover. Satan banging away on a goat!This album is truly a classic, one that can be put up against luminaries such as “Once Upon the Cross”, “Bathory”, and “Altars of Madness” without looking out of place.My rating: 5/5http://www.facebook.com/NunSlaughter

The legend of Nunslaughter, soaked in vile unholy blood and putrid black vomit, is one of the best in death metal period. You can bet every release will be pure, true, blasphemous death metal fury. "Goat" is only their second full length in (at the time) sixteen years. After hearing their first venomous full length, "Hell's Unholy Fire," all the killer splits and live albums (a fuckin shitload!) they had released before this, I couldn't wait to hear what "Goat" had to offer.

The head banging, thrashing riffs on this album are relentless in their attack. Occasionally they use slow to mid paced ultra heavy riffs which just snap your neck after the non-stop thrashing. These sections have no "slam" death or metalcore mid paced garbage riff groove either, this is old school gut wrenching groove as done by the masters.

The guitar tone and distortion here fits the riffs perfectly, and is perfect for death metal. It's down tuned like mostly all death metal, but not to the point where it loses its feeling and extreme thrash roots. There are no real leads or solos here either, and the music doesn't need it. The songs are short, mostly fast attacks that just go straight for the jugular. Bass guitar compliments the guitar tone great as well. There's no flash in Nunslaughter, just all out destruction. These guitars will fuckin slay you!

Vocalist Don of the Dead sounds possessed by Hell's Unholy Fire itself. His blasphemous vomits electrify the music and infect it with evil and malicious incantations. Early death metal styled vocals here, no pitch shifted or pig squeal toilet bowl bullshit. He reminds me of David Vincent on early Morbid Angel releases but more demonic!

Drumming is tight as fuck and the performance and choice of beats delivered couldn't be better. Drum beats are intense and thrashing! The bass drum is pounding and persistent. Don't expect anything overly technical, but don't expect anything overly simple either. The performance overall is extremely proficient, while staying in the pocket enough to not take anything away from the other instruments.

"Goat" is an absolutely essential album by an absolutely essential band for any fan of true death metal. Nunslaughter is one of those bands that will NEVER disappoint for raw, unadulterated, uncompromising metal. This is an onslaught of pure demonic power from the fuckin grave! Death metal zombies: BUY OR DIE!

This is the old vein of Death Metal; the shit that was all about the devil, fucking, and gore! You won’t find keyboards, acoustic guitars, nine minute long guitar solos featuring every fucking little trick you just learned on guitar to make it sound cool, Goth string arrangements, and no operatic female vocals to speak of. This is, from the beginning to the end; balls to the fucking wall, short and nasty Death Metal.

From the time the it begins about thirty seconds into “The Crowned And Conquering Hag” the album lets go and simply rips your face off leaving your ear drums in a broken and bloody mess! The fucking album never stops, never submits, never eases up, it just fucking owns your ass! This is something that modern day Death Metal bands should make note of, far too many of them are only interested in blending in Metalcore elements and shoving out wave after wave of boring DxE breakdowns.

In this album are, without a fucking doubt, the best riffs written in quite a long time. What’s so impressive with that is that there are so few riffs involved here! This is one of the strengths of the album; they keep it short and sweet. The longest song on this album is three minutes and six seconds long; the shortest, exactly forty-nine seconds long! But this is a good thing, trust me it is! Nunslaughter limits the amount of riffs on here; there are no guitar solos at all and precious few breaks in the action. The fact that the songs are so short helps with the few riffs present to prevent the individual songs from becoming stale and boring.

The bass is fully audible which I should mention is something of a shock for a band playing the old style of Death Metal. I actually recommend that everyone here, who is able to do so, listen to this album with the bass cranked up. Listen to it on Double Bass if you got it on your CD player. The drum work, fucking spectacular; it doesn’t provide anything completely spectacular or provide any drumming which is overtly technical. But what is does do compliment the driving guitar and vocal work in a great way. The vocal work of Don of the Dead on this album will fucking blow you away. He doesn’t shell out the over-used guttural growling of typical Death Metal bands, nor does he shriek in some high-pitched voice. What he does do is provide a distinctly unique and harsh tone adding more fucking brutality to an album which already could kick the ass of everything else which has come out in the post-2000 world. But then again, I wouldn’t expect anything less of Don of the Dead.

The song “Raid the Convent” is somewhat similar to another song on an earlier release of Nunslaughter entitled “Burning Away” from the album “Hell’s Unholy Fire”. The main similarity is in the drum work. Both songs are driven by vocal and drum work with segments featuring just both of those and no guitar or bass work. That’s the similarity end, so it’s not as similar as I’ve heard it described. At least not in my opinion, feel free to reach your own conclusion.

That being said, fans of strictly modern metal would hate this stuff! I mean absolutely fucking hate it! In this album Nunslaughter offers no tricks, no sing-along chorus parts, no twelve step down-tuned seven string-guitars, no whining about how your parents wouldn’t buy you the new Marilyn Manson CD, no two and a half minute DxE breakdowns, no clean vocals sounding as if they were being sung by a pre-pubescent teen, hell no clean vocals at all! This is simple, gritty, nasty, and aggressive Death Metal being played it was intended to be played! I wouldn’t strongly recommend anyone who craves good Death Metal in the old vein to pick up this album.