Album Review: King Goat – Conduit (Aural Music)

Hailing from Brighton in the UK, King Goat are a doom metal band & Conduit is their debut album. It was released in 2016 but is getting a re-release (with bonus tracks coming from the previous EP) under the band’s new label, Aural Music on the 8th December 2017.

Opening with the near 9-minute Flight Of the Deviants, King Goat are a welcome shot of excitement within the doom genre. Eschewing the expected gruffness for a smoother & more listenable style. The clean singing alongside some nice melody doesn’t stop it being a slammingly heavy track.

Feral King ups the ante with even more attention grabbing doomy groove & a heavier vocal style before the title track delivers an even more impressive effort. The latter of the two in particular is such a great mix of rhythmic doominess, haunting melody & awe-inspiring vocals. A simply stunning piece of music on an album that is pure quality from beginning to end.

Revenants slows things down in a similar fashion to the opener but it’s a needed breather & still results in an amazingly uplifting slab of melodic doom. The original album then comes to a close with Sanguine Path, a track that sees King Goat throwing their all into delivering a final memorable, exciting & ear-pleasing finish.

You can’t help but wonder if three more bolted on tracks was really a good idea seeing as the five tracks that came before sounded so complete. Final Decline is an epic though. One that builds & builds for over 8 minutes before unleashing hell with a malestrom of noisy metal. After that Cult Obscene & Melian’s Trance feel super-short in comparison.

There is no getting away from the obvious…King Goat are great & Conduit is simply stunning. Adding the 3 extra songs doesn’t detract from its quality, it just gives you more King Goat to enjoy.

King Goat – Conduit Full Track Listing:

1. Flight of the Deviants
2. Feral King
3. Conduit
4. Revenants
5. Sanguine Path
6. Final Decline (Bonus Track)
7. Cult Obscene (Bonus Track)
8. Melian’s Trance (Bonus Track)

You can pick up the original album & bonus vinyl edition via Aural Music here. You can also pick it up via King Goat’s bandcamp here & via Spotify. Find out much more about the band via their website here, Facebook & Twitter.