Goatess-Goatess

Svart Records
2013

Just going by the album art I knew this one was going to be right up my alley! What we have in Goatess is a vehicle (or rather another vehicle you could say) for current Lord Vicar front-man Chritus Linderson (Count Raven, Saint Vitus, Terra Firma) to maneuver all by himself. This Swedish 4-piece band is, as one might well expect, doomish in nature, but this homegrown beast, which was actually called Weekend Beast at the start, are a looser interpretation of the genre then Lord Vicar. After all this is a project that sees fit to indulge in the "worship of the heavy riff"! What does that entail for your average listener then? I'd say it means that you get a side of Sleep and Kuyss to go with your main-course of Sabbath loving doom. What's really good about this debut-album is the low-key production. Goatess don't opt for a raw production or anything like that, but the production is under-stated in such a way that it gives the album a rather earthy and nature vibe. There's few groups these days that could pull that off (having less be more production-wise), but this Swedish act sits comfortably knowing that this low-key production perfectly suites their rawer attitude. In essence this is doom metal smoking lot's of hash with the end result being a low-key album with the potential for a huge impact.