Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 04:15 AM by Giorgos Tsekas
Genre: World Music
Country: Sweden
Label: Comet
Year: 2016
Goat is a band, or a collective as they like to promote themselves, whose concept is the exposure and celebration of world’s music basis that is the connection with earth, the affiliation with death and the transcendence to the cosmic plane. Their third album “Requiem” signifies a turn for the band, or rather a difference approach for the realization of their intention, namely a swift to more simplistic and less electrical means. The method remained the same with messages of brotherhood spoken over music, with stripped out and abstract tunes that serve as a hypnotic path to a globalized musical trance and easily spotted references to particular corners of the world as far as their musical heritage is concerned. What is missing though, is the psychedelic element and the overall psych rock approach of mostly the first album that attracted so much attention to the band from diverge audiences. This vibrant hysteria that would resonate people with the message and start up the ritual, or at least a great party that was Goat’s strength, is rather absent in this one.
The problem with “Requiem” is also the duration, it is a double album that flows somewhat gasping with a much needed peak exactly in the middle of it, “Goatband”, but without enough spark to carry the listener through as both “World Music” and “Commune” could easily do. The songs are a bit lengthier in average than usual, less adventurous and the lack of the dirty guitars and the jamming feeling for the most part of the album is disappointing. In contrast, wind instruments are dominant in the first three songs and I can’t stop thinking that the Goat I liked got shittyfluted (If you don’t know what this means, check it on youtube). I was expecting something more from that band than reminding me the very sympathetic feathered Peruvians that play in squares of major cities in Europe selling folklore to the tourists. The second part of the album is obviously elevated, “Alarms”’s brief fuzzy solo gave some hope, but then comes “Trouble In The Streers” with this ‘vamos a la playa’ feeling that does not fit at all and “Psychedelic Lover” with its promiscuous title, which turns out to be a rather flat song without the slightest bit of psychedelia. Then come a bunch of songs that lift up the mood, but the interesting ideas are either too short like “Try My Robe”, or a bit repetitive and with a weird guitar tone, eventually missing the chance to spice things up, like “Goatfuzz” which is definitely electric, but mostly due to a ‘borrowed’ riff, that of Spooky Tooth’s “Better By You, Better Than Me”, or the Judas Priest’ version of it, if you prefer. The last two songs, “Goodbye” and “Ubuntu”, came through as an exaggeration of Goat’s message, kind of overworking the band on the communication level and missing the point, unless “Goodbye” implies a bigger closure than that of just the record, which is after all named “Requiem”. The fact that the best part of the last 15 minutes of the record is the intervention of “Diarabi”’s tune is disappointing for a band that I have seen making the stiffest metalheads indulging in crazy dances.
Goat’s discography has a declining progress and if “Commune” was not as balanced as “World Music”, but still powerful, “Requiem” is confusing while it rocks and grooves much less. The fact that it is a double album doesn’t help at all and if it is a grower it is a very slow one and it lacks songs that will stuck to mind without achieving a dense whole that would be appreciated for its flow and consistency. If this is a deliberate change of aim and direction it really didn’t work on me, but I would rather think of it as a deviation to a temporary, and hopefully transitional, inspirational dead end. Yet, they still remain superb on stage and the new songs sound a lot more powerful and meaningful when heard and seen live, even if the material in “Requiem” is subpar.
3/6
