Official press release:
Iron Bonehead Productions is proud to present the debut EP of a newcomer that’ll soon be spoken of with reverence and reverie: Goatcraft’s όλεθρος, set to be unleashed internationally on February 22nd on 12″ vinyl. Originally released last year on CD format, όλεθρος is Goatcraft’s first official recording after their debut demo, which essentially was a warm-up for this mini-album. Although seemingly sprawling for an EP at 13 tracks, the 25-minute όλεθρος is a seamless work of diabolical black metal barbarity and dungeon-locked atmosphere, those tracks nearly neatly alternating and yet locked together as one wild, winding work, culminating in a fever dream that flashes back and forth between violence and ambiance. With utmost skill and unapologetic arrogance, this Slovakian power-trio lock into imminently headbanging yet dangerously occult tropes that find the elusive balance between fanaticism and finesse, all the while maintaining a strange, sepulchral sort of melodicism that grants these gritty ‘n’ earthbound anthems a sort of hovering aspect. It’s sweaty and bloody and most certainly made by real humans in a real studio, but the combined effect creates an out-of-this-world/out-of-your-mind aura that’s extremely difficult to master, much less duplicate. Somehow stuck decades behind whilst sounding fresher than nearly everything else in the nowadays black metal scene, Goatcraft’s όλεθρος is the beginning chapter to a truly twisted tale from a truly twisted band.
όλεθρος track listing:
1. “Isle of the Dead”
2. “Temples of the Underworld”
3. “Cataclysmic Monuments”
4. “Graveless”
5. “Abominations”
6. “At the Nightside Dawn”
7. “Morbid Call”
8. “Deathrite”
9. “Chthonic Crevices”
10. “Down Below”
11. “Invocation of Death”
12. “Dreadful Dimensions”
13. “Far from Elysian Fields”
