End of Man

The new EP From Atlanta Georgia’s Hellgoat entitled “End of Man”, is definitely a massive delivery as far as concept and structure goes. The Anti-Christianity/Satanic imagery has been run into the ground and this band continues along the same lines, but they more than make up for this stale aspect with the sheer raw production and in-your face playing ability. The riffs are extremely dirty and gritty and definitely give off that deep underground vibe that bands like this seem to thrive on. I get a really strong vibe of Rottrevore and Achrosticon mixed in with a tad bit of “Reek of Putrefaction” era Carcass. The Rottrevore and Achrosticon vibe is more in the “Demonic Worship of the Horned Beast” track while the “End of Man” track houses the Carcass vibe. Even though the sound may be raw on these 2 songs, you can definitely tell there is a bit of technical ability. This EP is my introduction to the band, so I’ll have to backtrack and check out some of their earlier material to see how they have progressed. Aside from the subject matter and imagery of the band, I really like the sound that these guys bring to the table.

The drum work on this EP is just chaotic as all hell, and really fits with the material. I’m quite sure that the band put in a decent amount of work into these songs where the drumming is concerned but there are some part that I bet could be ad-libbed and nobody would be able to tell the difference. That is the only problem I have with bands that play this muddied style of black metal. Sometimes it is just so chaotic and under produced, it just doesn't sound like it has any structure what so ever. That is not the entire case here, but there are some parts where things are indecipherable. With that being said, the sheer brutality of the music played here definitely wins out over any oversights where song structure might be an issue. I bet these guys are absolutely insane in a live setting.

The vocals are very impressive. Not your typical black metal vocal here. There are definitely influences of death and thrash metal vocals as well and this really adds to the painful infliction of agony that the band delivers on this 2 track EP. Overall, if you took the above influences and added to the mix “Fallen Angel of Doom” era Blasphemy, then you have pretty much hit the nail on the head with Hellgoat. This EP is not polished and it is most definitely not pretty, but I highly recommend checking it out if you are in to under produced, muddy, dirty, gritty, evil, and blasphemic sounding black metal. This will definitely set an ethereal mood in every way that it possibly can…