Sounds Like:
Mind-bending tech-death with a head full of mad ideas
For Fans Of:
The Faceless, Decapitated, Soreption
Listen To:
Exsanguinated
In an era of relentless sensory bombardment, metal bands need to get their point across quickly and with maximum force. Glasgow’s Godeater do all of that and more within new single Exsanguinated’s breathless 150 seconds. Following last year’s promising Outerstellar EP, the new song suggests that this young quartet are rapidly morphing into something special: a technical death metal band with a knack for writing short, exhilarating anthems.
“I’ve got quite a short attention span so I’ve always been drawn to quick changes and linear structures,” says guitarist Ross Beagan. “The bulk of the writing stage is very natural and spontaneous, building on sections I’ve already written. Then I refine every detail to ensure that the songs are as concise as possible.”
Aside from its elaborate structure and dizzying, quasi-symphonic arrangement, Exsanguinated pulls off the additional trick of sounding weirdly original and difficult to pigeonhole. Touches of everything from early Decapitated to latter-day Between The Buried And Me erupt from the absurdly precise mêlée, but Godeater already seem to have conjured their own, subtly eccentric metal substrain. The first song to emerge from the Scots’ forthcoming debut album, Exsanguinated also marks vocalist Josh Graham’s first opportunity to write lyrics for the band he joined last year – and he hasn’t wasted the chance to write from the heart.
When I joined the band, the lyrics for Outerstellar had already been written for me,” he notes. “The new single is us lashing out at the utter barbarism that takes place in the food industry daily, with regards to cattle farming. We know it’s a finite industry and we know the environmental impact it’s having, and yet nothing changes because those who run it make too much money from it. It’s a shortsighted and selfish worldview to have and it disgusts us.”
Godeater seem to be relishing the limitless possibilities facilitated by their open-minded approach to being brutal. As Josh explains, it’s possible to stick to the death metal script without merely repeating other people’s ideas.
“I think we take cues from the likes of Deafheaven on that front,” he says. “They are taking black metal to new places without necessarily saying ‘We are the future of this genre.’ I’d say that’s how we want to approach death metal. I’ll never not want to hear horrible, filthy, buzzsaw guitar riffs but we want to do things with the genre that maybe haven’t been explored before.”
“It’s technical death metal but without limits,” adds Ross. “We crossover styles, it really gives us a lot of room to be progressive and shape our sound.”
With British death metal getting more attention than at any point since the 90s, bands as meticulous and talented as Godeater deserve to rise swiftly to the top of the pile.
“Exsanguinated is just the start of a change in our sound,” Ross concludes. “The new album tracks are more refined, more varied and more textured.”
“Lyrically there’s a definite thematic continuation from Exsanguinated in places,” adds Josh, “but it’s already sounding pretty diverse and I can’t give too much away yet!”
