Words – Shelby Lane
Photos – djsedick
Hot off their album launch supported by insane acts such as CHOOF, ISUA, WELL, FLOWER FIELD FOLLY, WHITEHORSE, MAMMONS THRONE and SKEZM. Spanning across two iconic Victorian venues, The Tote and Frankston’s own Singing Bird Studios, GOAT SHAMAN’S debut album Monkey Palace is a burgeoning cauldron of sludge, doom, stoner rock featuring dashes of groove metal. Drawing inspiration from a myriad of metal sub-genres, GOAT SHAHAM’s debut album MONKEY PALACE is a cacophony of magnetism and the occult.
MONKEY PALACE gives us a quashing introduction with SLIPPERY BEERS which immediately paints a sonic tableaux rich with harmonic riffs that creates a swelling sonic assault of lyrical mysticism which conjures up a droning, gyrating and gnawing wall of sound that eats away at you and your ravenous ear drums. Each guttural bellow is like an audible death penalty leaving the listener begging for mercy. No deity can save us from the caustic clutches of GOAT SHAMAN and the command they have on our wretched souls.
Seeping into their second track SNAIL GRAIL, the melody feels like a sordid incantation effectuating each inactive synapse like a hammer against cloth. Brazen, plangent and at times, boisterous, the album already boasts such a rich and prospering tapestry of noise.
Wading through the rest of the album like a thirsty drifter lost in the desert, MR BIZ arrives like a sudden hypnic jolt—an audible, sludgy fever dream summoned from the steamy, spellbound depths of the Bayou. It’s a hypnotic, voodoo-laced enchantment.
The album sustains its seductive, tsunami-scale menace as it surges through the mystical haze of TEPID SLOB, punishing whir of ODIUM BELOW and the tantalizing siren song of SHAFT SPLITTER.
MONKEY PALACE draws its seismic conclusion with BUTTERY BONGS which can only be summed up as an alluring kiss goodnight. An anticipated action with a surprising result. Slowing the pace down, allowing our chests and pulse to fall, GOAT SHAMAN have us on high alert with their swan song as this astonishing, moreish, groove-laden, doomy and gloomy debut draws to a close.
Woah, processing this has been a feat for me. I hope you all share the same breathlessness I do.
EVERYDAY METAL – SUPPORT LOCAL HEAVY METAL
