Sunday 5 January 2014

Cokegoat - Vessel (Album Review)


Album Type : Full length
Date Released : 8/11/2013
Label : Economy Of Motion Records

Vessel, album track listing :

1. Fear the Followers
2. Buried in the City
3. Dogs
4. End of Your Life, Pt. 1
5. End of Your Life, Pt. 2
6. Fly by Night, Pt. 2
7. Fly by Daylight
8. Glorious Dead

The Band :

Jeff Wojtysia | Guitar, Vocals
Ed Nudd | Guitar, Vocals
Chase Bentley | Guitar
Tim Baldwin | Bass
Rebekah Brown | Keys, Vocals
Jordan Schultz | Drums

Review :

Cokegoat.  Like some crazed farmyard exhibition, these noisemakers from Chicago are something to behold.  And to experience from a safe distance, lest you get headbutted to death.  It’s difficult to describe their sound: part stoner, part doom, part ohmyGodmyfaceisbeingmelted.  And yet, it still manages to be a very intriguing sound.  Their new album ‘Vessel’ hit me like a cloven hoof to the chest, and here is what I thought about it. 

Opener ‘Fear the Followers’ spits out pure hardcore vocal filth at you, with the guitars sawing away like you’re the next tree in line to be violently felled.  As soon as they reach a peak of pace and punch, things take a turn for the darker, the soundscape suddenly filled to the brim with slow, doomy heaviness, the drums hammering down like the relentless tides on a coastline.  If you want to start off your album with a twist, this is the way to do it. 

What really interested me about ‘Vessel’ is the pseudo-prog pieces slap bang in the middle of the album.  ‘End of Your Life’ parts 1 and 2 play out like a particularly violent Metallica epic of yore, coupled with some really destructive scream vocals from Rebekah Brown, Ed Nudd and Jeff Wojtysiak.  These three really do make vocal anarchy an art form.  Taken individually, these two tracks are righteous and devilish; taken as a whole entity, it becomes a much deeper, more menacing, more doom-dealing.  In short, ‘End of Your Life’ needs its sinister message to be heard by the masses. 

My personal favourite from ‘Vessel’ has to be closer ‘Glorious Dead’.  From its Gregorian chant-esque intro, it pounds out some of the darkest noise this side of Hell.  The intricate riffery made by guitar-abusers Chase Bentley, Ed Nudd, Jeff Wojtysiak and bass-punisher Tim Baldwin sounds like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse decided to quit waiting for the End Times and instead opted to start a band and kill the world that way.  ‘Glorious Dead’ is a testament to the power of loud: accentuated by Jordan Schultz’s magnificent drumming, and made terrifying by the noise-making abilities of Rebekah Brown. 

‘Vessel’ is an album of distorted chaos, and is brilliant because of it.  Don’t believe me?  Check out ‘Buried in the City’ and get back to me on that.  Cokegoat are chaotic, angry, brilliant, and bewitching.  They really are an animal worth keeping your eye on. 

Words by : Chris Markwell

You can buy it here

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