Ghoulgotha — The Deathmass Cloak
Though somewhat disjointed, "Gazing Into Melted Night" sets a nice tone for The Deathmass Cloak. Speed treats Ghoulgotha better than doom here, and, once you get past the haphazard lead, the drums give the song some much needed propulsion. These drums keep everything moving on "A Neck for the Nameless Noose," and further distance the death from the doom. Awesome blasts and horrific screams remind you why you listen to death metal and command you to bang your head. Unfortunately, though, the slower, doomy parts detract from the overall quite a bit. That's the general approach on this album, sadly. Pretty rad, fast death metal rips interspersed within lackluster doom sections just aren't enough to keep The Deathmass Cloak's head above water. It's somewhat schizophrenic, and this is best captured by the closer, "Levitate Within the Curse." Twelve minutes of death, doom, and crummy, haphazard keyboards sum up the seemingly random, oddly composed album very well.
When slamming back the death parts, Ghoulgotha is pretty convincing. Unfortunately, though, there are more slow, doom bits on display here than is helpful for the band. Overall, the riffs have a weird, unplanned vibe to them. I know experimentation is the road to discovery, but for the most part, the riffs sound more like amateur noodling than final product. Notes seem to be plucked from mid-air with no real regard for their place or which notes surround them. This same, willy nilly approach can be heard during the synth piece in the closing track. A few times, ok, that's more than preferable, but when this comes up on every song, sometimes more than once, it's a bit more telling.
Ghoulgotha's "trying too hard" approach to song titles could be overlooked if they had kept up with the pretty rippin', fast death metal. Unfortunately, the rest of the songs are poorly constructed, and feel carelessly slapped together. I like dynamic song structures, but more often than not, I find that this is confused with randomness.