Review: Goat Major ‘Death Comes Twice’
From the deepest, darkest parts of picturesque Pembrokeshire, my Welsh brethren, Goat Major, return with the follow-up to their much-acclaimed debut, 2024’s Ritual. The writing for the new album began pretty much straight away, as the trio were riding the crest of a wave and laid the platform for what we are about to receive.
You get a sense of the more melodic elements on the new album with the gentle opener Voyage Of Cetus as they tell us that the instrumental track is ‘like a sonic battle cry for what is to come’. They then spark into life with their raw, fuzzed-out heaviness during Firewalk as the lyrical content focuses on ‘someone who is persecuted for their free beliefs’. They turn on the power around the halfway mark, and your head is nodding along to the rhythm in no time.
One of the more appealing elements about the trio is they manage to combine weighty, doom-laden riffs with a punk attitude, adding to their rebellious nature. Addressing themes around death, loss, medieval rituals, religious persecution and generational hexes, there’s so much to enjoy across the nine tracks. The title track, Death Comes Twice, comes next, and is a thing of beauty, like a piece of chiselled Welsh slate. Tom Shortt’s vocals are nice and clear over the dense drum and bass, with Jammie Arnold powering away on the guitar.
hefty slab of potent melodies and intricate hooks as they lure you into their dark-centred mythical world…
Under The Moonlight follows with thumping drums from Simon Bonwick, as the ‘generational hexes on a female bloodline torture the listener with lust’ or so the band tells us. You can of course draw your own conclusions, but it is a driven, atmospheric song that they are forcing upon you. With biblical depictions of angels leading the way on Wheels Of Gold, they serve up another hefty slab of potent melodies and intricate hooks as they lure you into their dark-centred mythical world.
With a radio transmission leading the way of the subdued and haunting Sirens, it gives you a bit of a breather and time for self-reflection ahead of The Sin Eater. A brooding, colossal-sounding behemoth of a composition about a Welsh death ritual practitioner, who consumes bread over the deceased to absorb their sins. It’s got that necessary primaeval energy encasing every note that leads into Negative Church, a much shorter number, but still scary, nonetheless.
They end with Detached conjuring up more sinister and chilling riffs that leap out of the speakers before the vocals kick in around the midway point. The album is a grower and shows more maturity than their debut whilst simultaneously being gloomier and evocative, heavier and spookier, and extremely addictive.
Label: Ripple Music
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Matthew Williams
