Goatess - Goatess (2013)^{Release ID: 8673}

Goatess were formed in 2009 as Weekend Beast by guitarist Niklas Jones and Chritus (Christian Linderson), veteran vocalist of Count Raven and Lord Vicar. They changed their name to Goatess in 2012 and released this debut album the following year. If you are famiiar with Chritus' previous bands then you will be on pretty firm ground here as Goatess have one foot firmly planted in the traditional doom camp of those bands, although the other is very much rooted in the stoner tradition of acts like Sleep and Kyuss. Chritus said after the album's release that the songwriting was done by jamming in the rehearsal room and I think you can feel that approach manifested particularly in Jones' trippy guitar leads which feel a lot like the more jam-oriented stoner grooves of those acts. The tracks are quite lengthy, generally from seven to eleven minutes, so there is ample scope for the laid-back six-string flights of fancy to weave their spells. 

The riffs are still mostly derived from the trad doom template, although a track like "Full Moon at Noon" is much groovier and more rooted in stoner metal and even desert rock than actual doom metal. Meanwhile the two-part "The Oracle" begins with its first section sounding like latter-day, psychedelia-obsessed Cathedral, although the second part is one of the heaviest and doomiest tracks on the album with the forceful drumming of Kenta Karlbom playing a significant role. Closing track "Tentacles of Zen" even features an extended eastern-flavoured instrumental breakdown that wouldn't sound out of place on "Sgt. Pepper". The result of this trade-off between heavy riffs and trippy guitar leads brings to mind 90s Electric Wizard, albeit without the dark edge I associate with Jus Osborne's crew and with Chritus sounding so unlike Osborne the comparison doesn't entirely hold up successfully, although I still feel it is valid. Overall I like how this dynamic between the heavy and the trippy works and it has produced an album that comes across as a little bit different and a band that has a definite and particular vision for how they want to sound.