In the last little while, Latin America has adopted the thrash metal genre more than any other area in the world. Sure, there’s a slew of new thrash metal bands from America like Municipal Waste, Skeletonwitch, Bonded by Blood, but the adopting of thrash metal in South America has spawned a real cultural underground movement especially in Brazil and Colombia, where our band in question hails from. Bestial Holocaust is a blackened thrash band from Cochabamba that aims to throw its own name into the mix. The problem is, with all the new names popping left, right, and center, a half mediocre album like Into the Goat Vulva may easily get lost in the mix
The album kicks off strong enough, a great riff plods on and the heads starts banging, but after a little while you realize it’s the same riff is going on…and on. It’s not even part way through the first song and I can already foresee problems: repetitive riffs and indecisive genre switching. Every time I see a multi-genre band I shudder thinking about what crucial elements they ditched in order to get their particular mix of sounds. Not all bands can do it, but it’s clear by looking at bands like Eluveitie, Burn to Black, and Amon Amarth that it is possible to take the best from one genre and infuse it with another. However, since the results are so rarely successful it leads me to believe that most times they are better left apart, such as in the case of Into the Goat Vulva. While it may sound like a case of musical eugenics (and I’m not about to argue it’s not) it’s really about preserving the best traits of strong musical genres and keep them from being watered down attempts that in the end harm the artist’s product.
I can only assume that Bestial Holocaust was aiming for somewhere grand, like an extreme version of Show No Mercy. But, instead they landed somewhere near Possessed‘s Beyond the Gates and all its muddy horror. Unfortunately, Bestial Holocaust dropped the ball on most of the occasions. The riffs on this album are for the most part generic thrash riffs muddied up so that they sound blackened. And while I don’t believe it’s indicative of the Bestial Holocaust‘s skill, the sub par guitar playing does nothing for the songs and actually hinders the somewhat decent songwriting by the rest of the band. Unfortunately, there’s not that much that a listener can take away from this album; the riffs are bland, the bass is absent, and the drums disappear as soon as thing get fast. If it’s thrash they’re after, I need to hear the double bass, I need to hear definition. Otherwise, go with straight black metal.
On the off time though, Into the Goat Vulva displays that it can work as an album; there are times in tracks like “Sacrificio” that the band gets into a mid tempo groove reminiscent of Hell Awaits. “Virgin Lust” is one of the few stand out tracks and showcases a band that isn’t all bad, but either uninspired or not yet matured in their abilities.
There’s clearly several things on this album that did not work and unfortunately, until Bestial Holocaust can concentrate on creating a more solid and moving sound, all future releases will be marred by the same mistakes. And in the end, while the intent was wholehearted, the poor execution for one reason or another kept Into the Goat Vulva from being a success.