Goatwhore

T

hrash metal band Goatwhore emerged from the swamps of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. They were formed by well known musicians from the Louisiana Metal scene. They first came together in 1997 when Sammy Pierre Duet (ex-Acid Bath/ex-Crowbar; guitar) and Zak Nolan (drums; later replaced by Zack Simmons) jammed together as a side project when Acid Bath was taking a break. Together, the pair made some four track demos, but when Acid Bath fell apart in 1997 (due to the death of bassist Audie Pitre) they dedicated more time to Goatwhore (formerly known as Kilgore). They quickly turned into a four piece with the addition of vocalist Ben Fa lgoust (ex-Soilent Green) and bassist Pat Bruders (ex-Crowbar).

The band's flame-throwing ferocity and blasphemous conviction was compared to that of genre pioneers Bathory and Venom and offered something to purists who had grown weary of the fanciful, over-orchestrated musings of Europe's contemporary black metallurgists.

'Rotten Records' signed the band for their 2000 debut, The Eclipse of the Ages Into Black, but it was Goatwhore's second effort, Funeral Dirge for the Rotting Sun, that ventured into darker, less conventional territory. Probing the pitch-black recesses of mind and soul in a disturbing, introspective examination of dark forces at work, and unleashing it all with a feral hookiness and atmospheric flare and featuring Tim Holsinger stepping in on guitar.