Hailing from New Orleans, Louisiana, the blackened death metal band Goatwhore returns again with Vengeful Ascension. Three years after Constricting Rage of the Merciless, this release stands out in both the black metal and death metal community being the perfect blend of both genres. The guitar work on Mankind Will Have No Mercy is reminiscent of bands like Deicide and Kataklysm with a mix of Morbid Angel and Paradise Lost. The vocals have a distant old school black metal sound while the drums come in strong like a bulldozer. Now with that being said, the album has quite the perfectly blended crossovers between fast, angry black metal to groovy old school styled death metal.
Now the best parts are the heavy, full of rage riffs and memorable passages through each track such as the self titled Vengeful Ascension which gets more into the doom death style in vein of Katatonia and My Dying Bride but with their own twist on the sound. Not to mention, the right amount of solos are on this album to give a breath of fresh air.
This album can be appreciated by any metal fan. It brings the heaviness, the hypnotic riffs, unique transitions and a change to the mundane in the metal world. If you like blackened death metal done right, then expect nothing less from Goatwhore and go out and buy Vengeful Ascension! Definitely another masterpiece from Goatwhore.
Overall Score: 9.0/10
