Goatwhore have officially announced a June 23rd release date through Metal Blade for their new album “Vengeful Ascension“. The effort was recorded at Earth Analog in Tolono, IL with the band’s soundman Jarrett Pritchard (1349, Gruesome) taking on the production duties. Chris Common (Tribulation, Pelican) mixed the release. Speaking of the recording process, which broke a four-album run with Erik Rutan, frontman Ben Falgoust offered:
“Working with Rutan was awesome. We did some great records with him. But you come to a point where you’re like, ‘All right. Let’s try something new.’ It was part of trying to remove ourselves from a comfort zone and a risk thing we needed to take. Plus, we really wanted to hit the essence of where we are live and what better way to harness that than by having our live sound guy involved.
Jarrett is knowledgeable with the studio stuff. He also knows how we sound coming out of a PA and we really wanted to get closer to that. Pritchard really focused on that live aspect from every members’ perspective and I think he pushed us out of our personal comfort zones. He really understands our vision.”
Though not a concept album, the effort does sport a bit of a unifying theme, as Falgoust offers:
“There’s that whole idea of Lucifer being the anti-hero. He’s cast out from this place in Heaven to the depths of nothing. He keeps trying to ascend to the top again but no matter what, there’s always this significant force trying to destroy him at any point and banish him back to Hell. If you look at it from an everyday aspect in life, it’s the idea of people, hitting the bottom of the barrel or you know, things just aren’t going right in life… emotion plays a huge part in how people react.
Whether it’s based on love or hatred or sadness or whatever, there’s always an aspect of emotion that drives people to an extent. So the whole idea of a ‘Vengeful Ascension‘ is built on being at the bottom, working your way to the top, and realizing along the way that there’s other facets to the journey aside from just pure retribution. Within negativity there can exist a positive angle as well.”
A stream of the title track can be found below along with the cover art and track listing. Meanwhile, pre-order options for the album are now available and include a limited edition “spell book.” You can check that out at metalblade.com.
01 – “Forsaken”
02 – “Under The Flesh, Into The Soul”
03 – “Vengeful Ascension”
04 – “Chaos Arcane”
05 – “Where The Sun Is Silent”
06 – “Drowned In Grim Rebirth”
07 – “Abandon Indoctrination”
08 – “Mankind Will Have No Mercy”
09 – “Decayed Omen Reborn”
10 – “Those Who Denied God’s Will”
