Carving out the Eyes of God is Goatwhore’s fourth and latest album. After A Haunting Curse released in 2006 my own expectations for this new Goatwhore album were quite high and I’m very happy to say that the band deliver the goods on this album.

The music is still mostly the same. Sammy Duet is still peddling these huge riffs that sound like a cross between Hellhammer and his own NOLA roots with the majority being in the realm of dirty, vicious death thrash. The rest of the band is spot on with Ben Falgoust turning in an inspired vocal performance that’s filled with bile and invective and Zack Simmons pretty much continues from where he left off on The Haunting Curse with another pummeling performance behind the drum kit.

The album opens in fantastic style with Apocalyptic Havoc and that opening riff is pretty much the most kickass metal riff I’ve heard so far this year and the momentum doesn’t really let up through the course of the album’s ten songs. If the first four songs on the album focus mostly on beating the listener over the head with a bat then by the time In Legions, I am Wars of Wrath shows of the band’s love for mixing death and black metal to great effect. Reckoning of the Soul made Godless is pure 80s thrash worship and sounds like Dark Angel did back in the day and album closer To Mourn and Forever Wander Through Forgotten Doorways is reminiscent of the band from the Funeral Dirge for a Rotting Sun days.

The band doesn’t put a foot wrong through the course of these ten songs. The tempos vary and the style goes from thrash to death to black but the songwriting never falters. This is an album that is just solid from beginning to end and with ten songs clocking in at a shade over 40 minutes there is absolutely no fat on this record.

While this album may not be the in your face constant barrage that was A Haunting Curse I think in the long run, Carving Out the Eyes of God might just be an even more enjoyable album.

Label: Metal Blade

Year of release: 2009