Entrenched in third configuration and now presenting a fourth-angled iteration upon their blasphemic craft Nuremberg, Germany-based blackened death metal trio GOATH return with the accretion of a decade’s worth of focus for this latest full-length album. Rather than redefining their work once again these folks have reaffirmed their affection for 90’s black and death metal classics in piecing together a heaviest-yet, decidedly groove stricken record in ‘IV: Silencing the Prophets of Deceit‘. Always pushing to address the possibilities offered by permutations of death metal from a blasphemic, blackened angle their work here is unpretentious yet impressive for its machinery in motion, bringing together the fiery wrath and moshable cut of past works into a record which delivers one punishing blow after another.

Goath formed as a trio circa 2015 between folks best known for their involvement in their local black metal scenery as well as ‘old school’ death metal band Deathronation. For the first four years (and four releases) vocalist/bassist Muerte (Seeds of Hate, Total Hate) was frontman and co-founder as the band developed a classics inspired form of blackened death metal, which to my ears always appeared as an analogue to the Polish ideation of USDM (Deicide, Morbid Angel esp.) in the 90’s though they’d brought in bestial death and death/thrash riffs for their first demo tape (‘Demo‘, 2016) and explored those possibilities on a debut full-length (‘Luciferian Goath Ritual‘, 2017) recorded that same year. My interest in the band at the time centered around their relation to Deathronation as I’d been a fan of that band’s 2014 debut (and thus far sole recording), briefly considering their sound as inclusive of some of those ideas. From that point the trio’s focus was more resolutely upon black metal’s chaotic mania beside both modern and classicist death metal grooves.

Though each of Goath‘s first two albums were recorded under similar circumstances their second LP (II: Opposition‘, 2018) was more ambitious in its exploration of black metal riffcraft while also offering some refinement of their production values in terms of bringing more low end into the mix. To my ear elements of hardcore punk, sludge, and such brought points of interest to a few songs but the album generally built character via its melding of those elements with its death metal grooves. That aspect of the band has remained consistent since and is a major feature of ‘IV: Silencing the Prophets of Deceit‘ today. I’d more-or-less said this much when taking a closer look at Goath‘s discography back in 2021 in review of their third LP (‘III: Shaped by the Unlight’, 2021) though I’m not sure I’d emphasized how much their impact had changed per their one-off collaboration with bassist/co-vocalist Nils Fjandannsson. This new album isn’t in direct continuation of that more harried approach to pacing and many-layered vocals but some of the jogging and shotgunning riffs on that record do find some direct relation on album number four.

Though we’d heard his work on a 2021 release split ‘IV: Silencing the Prophets of Deceit‘ adds Escarnium frontman/guitarist Victor Elian on bass/vocals to round out the trio’s Mark III formation and once again the dynamic and vision for the band has changed though the core efficacy of their sound is retained. The first thing most folks familiar with the band’s discography will notice is a distinct shift towards death metal with heavy emphasis on thrashing grooves. Opener “Wherever He Takes Me” might suggest otherwise per its middle portion and 2000’s Aeternus-feeling atmospheric drift within the first half of the song but by the time we dig into the guts of the title track (“Silencing the Prophets of Deceit”) the hammer of this album truly drops. It is also the first of several songs on this album to carry in early 90’s Deicide inspired riffcraft alongside death-thrashing escalation, making for a clear standout as the album builds its unsteady momentum.

If I’ve not been clear enough by now this album heavily focuses on moshable grooves much in the same way parts of ‘II: Opposition‘ had though in this case the downtuned sludge-death feeling is replaced by brutality and what I’d consider 90’s groove metal movements. The first taste of this comes with “Beneath the Scum”, more of a mid-paced punisher beyond its more cracked moments, and you’ll soon get the gist of how those grooves are the glue and the substance of the experience. They’ve managed a different level of aggro here which requires both finesse and ballsier hits to land. “The Swarm” and “Their Rivers Will be Red” after it each do a great job of incorporating blackened death riffcraft and fairly simple grooves via grinding transitions between each mode, this is the major impact of the album. Side A thrives in these variations and Side B generally looks for something else to do with that dynamic.

“Coitus Eden” should act as a marker, a point of significant tonal change as it stands to interrupt and redefine how Goath approaches their groovier, slower-going side while also incorporating some clean vocals near the end. I don’t fully “get” the song in the context of the album but I’d liked some of the brief Bølzer-esque riffs in the final third of its duration. They’ve had something off-color or surprising on the second half of their last two releases, something different was expected though this song still surprises. That said the thrashing punishment of the title track is reborn in standout “Dogs of Heaven”, whipping their most pre-’95 Deicide fueled riffcraft to date while also delivering the hardest-thrashed riffs on the album overall. Just a moment later we’re up to our necks within the oddly hardcorish bap of single “Say it With a Knife” and it isn’t a bad song at all though it all strikes as erratic, manic in focus as the second half of the album rolls hard through very different standalone pieces.

Having grown up in the 80’s/90’s I don’t particularly like simple groove metal (or, “half-thrash”) riffs anywhere nearby death metal though I’d felt Goath use those simple and easily telegraphed grooves effectively in shaping a heavier, death-leaning record which hits hard without veering too far into the excess of brutality. “Bite the Hand” is a highlight in this sense, a late album song that carries the rush of the first half back and gives it a feral blackened death strike. From my point of view the substantive value of the album finds its logical endpoint there and ‘IV: Silencing the Prophets of Deceit‘ has proven itself a crusher, a hard kick in the balls for the listener who’d gone in expecting a more typical alchemical reaction between black and death metal. I won’t be stuck on it for too long but I appreciate the pummeling it serves.

Where things go awry for my own taste is within the odd expanse of the closer “Schwefeltaufe” a fourteen minute track which begins as a ~5 minute Morbid Angel-esque sludged-out death metal instrumental jam that fades into roughly ten minutes of spoken word in German. The latter two thirds of this track are generally unrelated per the whole of the experience, capping it off in a bland way, as I don’t understand what is said and the speech/voiceover goes on for a very long time. It doesn’t ruin the album but I figure it will more than likely be skipped/ignored by most anyone returning to the album more than once. Otherwise Goath have provided a ballsier, chunkier, more death metal focused bout of irreverence for their fourth album which is likely to sate the interest of longtime fans first and potentially pull in folks seeking chunkier grooves and blasphemic accost. A moderately high recommendation.

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