Album Review: Goatwhore – Angels Hung from the Arches of Heaven (Metal Blade Records)

Rampaging into their 25th year as purveyors of the most ruthless extreme metal, Goatwhore return with Angels Hung from The Arches of Heaven. Their 8th full length album, it will be released on October 7th, 2022 via Metal Blade Records.

As far as extreme metal goes, it doesn’t get much better than this. Goatwhore’s inimitable brand of blackened death and thrash sounding harsher, darker and more necessary than ever. In fact, this might be the freshest sound that Goatwhore has delivered in some time. The gap between releases allowing them time to perfect their rawness. To sound more measured, purposeful and direct. From the moment the album begins to the moment it ends, there is a palatable sense that this Goatwhore throwing every bit of them, into it.

A sinister intro called Invocation 3 leads into the first grand example of crushing death heaviness and blackened twists, Born of Satan’s Flesh. An intense cacophony of head-banging evilness that puts a wicked grin on the face.

There’s no let-up as The Bestowal of Abomination brings forth manic instrumentation, the frenzied pacing feeling particularly black. Before the title track explodes with a virulency utterly controlled by the guitars and Death from Above is thrash-infused aggression, personified. Goatwhore offering no relief from their heavy penchant but delivering power that doesn’t so much as hold the attention, as it does grip it in a vice.

Which means it won’t come as surprise that the grip tightens and tightens as Goatwhore blaze their way through the likes of Ruinous Liturgy, Victory Is the Lightning of Destruction and Voracious Blood Fixation. Brash and brutish metal that swings with almighty strength, leaving the brain feeling like mush. It almost sounds like hyperbole to call this album one of the year’s most extreme listens but it’s not.

Case in point, The Devil’s Warlords. One of, if not the most ferocious track on the album. Where the four-piece hit demonic levels of speed and drop tomes of crushing heaviness on skulls.

Keeping things focused on unrelenting savagery, Weight of a Soulless Heart and Nihil continue to show that Goatwhore are not slowing down as they reach 25 years of existence. In fact, based off the furious noise that emanates from these two tracks (and the album as a whole), there’s a strong argument that they’re only growing in diabolical potency as the years tick by.

Then, just when you think you’ve heard everything Goatwhore has to offer, they go one step further with the mammoth finale of And I Was Delivered from the Wound of Perdition. An epic track that has atmosphere, melody and a thrilling amount of heavy.

Goatwhore are back and they’re hungrier than ever.

Goatwhore – Angels Hung from The Arches of Heaven Full Track Listing:

1. Invocation 3
2. Born of Satan’s Flesh
3. The Bestowal of Abomination
4. Angels Hung from the Arches of Heaven
5. Death from Above
6. Ruinous Liturgy
7. Victory Is the Lightning of Destruction
8. Voracious Blood Fixation
9. The Devil’s Warlords
10. Weight of a Soulless Heart
11. Nihil
12. And I Was Delivered from the Wound of Perdition

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