Golgothan Remains “Bearer of Light, Matriarch of Death”
Australian death metal band Golgothan Remains returns with a face-melting new EP.
While you can find descriptions of this band as blackened dissonant death or even avant-garde something-or-other, the truth is that no matter which direction a humble extreme metal wordsmith may choose to wank-off in, fans of death metal will dig this hard. When it comes to narrative, let Sydney-siders Golgothan Remains do the storytelling. This concept EP follows two full-length releases — the 2018 debut, “Perverse Offerings to the Void”, and 2022’s crushing “Adorned in Ruin”, an album hinting at Ulcerate, Immolation and Gorguts all at the same time. The promo for “Bearer of Light, Matriarch of Death” speaks of a “love story about two centuries old creatures trying to find companionship but due to their strong evil spirit are unable to exist with another powerful figure by their side”. Now imagine you’re eavesdropping on said creatures from above as they quarrel at the bottom of a muddy cave, and here we are. Love is complicated. Love is grand. And goddamn it, so are these four superbly crafted extreme metal tunes.
The opening track “Methuselah” begins as a doom track, not just by way of the intro, but in the dissonant tones beneath which double-tracked vocals wolf-bark and spoken word vocals forbode. I write “beneath which” instead of “atop which” as vocals are pleasantly muffled throughout. An oxymoron may it seem, “pleasantly muffled” is not a criticism. Vocals throughout the record, whether barked, screamed or spoken, aren’t as prominent as those on “Adorned in Ruin”. This feels by design to create atmosphere and it works.
Double-kick arrives to slightly precede snare blasts and all of a sudden, we’re balls deep in blackened death metal of the highest and murkiest order. “Methuselah” alternates a few more times between doom and blackened death, more than occasionally hinting at a sound reminiscent of Canadian war poets Panzerfaust (who also has an album out this week). “Tribulation” is the second track and, unlike “Methuselah”, uses up absolutely no time hinting at a doom intro but rather, kicks the listener fair in the dick and doesn’t look back until it finally slows a minute and a half in. Muddy dissonance and frantic blasts dominate the blackened parts while the doomier sections expertly offset the madness. This track utilises a higher register scream in parts to keep the vocals slightly more varied than the opener, rendering it a little more interesting in the process. In fact, if there is a complaint here it is that said scream isn’t used enough. But on we move.
The third track, “Necropoles”, could be the highlight. It has all the elements that make the first two songs work, only the riffs are riffier and the dissonance more dissonant. The second half of the track uses that high scream again in addition to spoken word vocals that serve the song by adding atmosphere rather than sounding contrived as they could if used by a band with less purpose (spoken word in an Aussie accent can’t help but remind this reviewer of Cog’s “The River Song” and that can only be good — not that the two songs sound anything alike whatsoever other than this one tiny element).
“Andromeda” proves me wrong on the album highlight front. It’s equal to or better than “Necropoles” and while I could retract what was written earlier, perhaps leaving it as is illustrates how consistent this EP is at sounding cohesive while remaining interesting. Indeed, there will probably be listeners who find elements of all four tracks to be a little samey but to you future purveyors of cynicism I say this — you’re missing the point. This offering is all about atmosphere — an evil, suffocating, soul-shredding atmosphere.
There’s no place for negative nonsense when a band this great can conceive a well-written concept EP, and then play and record it with such conviction as Golgothan Remains have here. Perhaps if it were stretched out across a whole album, sure, but as four tracks belonging to an aural theme of storytelling, this is some grand shit. If you’re a fan of death metal that sounds dirty and just a little bit dangerous, “Bearer of Light, Matriarch of Death” is for you.
“Bearer of Light, Matriarch of Death” was produced by Greg Chandler at Priory Recording Studios and will be released by Dark Descent Records on 22nd November.
Review by Nathan Eden.
