Witchbones
– Goaty (2020)
USA
Morbid
Chapel Records
Witchbones
from Oregon, USA, plays crushingly heavy death/doom that radiates
despondency and evil. This is the kind of music that you would listen to before blowing your brains out. The atmosphere tone is bleak, ritualistic, heavy and powerful. The music constantly assaults the
listener with its monolithic heaviness and oppressive aura. The cover art for this album does a good job at capturing the album's foul essence. Worth mentioning is the fact that Witchbones is a one-man project. Some of the most haunting music ever recorded were by one-man bands. It could be the isolationist factor, or maybe these people are too messed up to work with other musicians? Whatever the case may be,
Witchbones' music perfectly captures that state of darkness, mania and isolation. The music strikes an interesting balance between death/doom and dark ambient, which sounds almost like an amalgamation of bands like Impetuous Ritual, diSEMBOWELMENT, and Gnaw Their Tongues. Maybe my references doesn't do the music justice, but that's the best I could come up with. There's a lot of creativity on this album and the band manage to create a very dense and chaotic atmosphere. "Goaty" is quite experimental and shows a multifarious range of elements, but remains a death/doom album in essence. Conclusion: If you like any of the above-mentioned bands, including music that sounds like it was spawned from some unholy abyss realm, then definitely check it out. (HT)