By:
Phil Weller
Album Type: Demo (Remastered)
Date Released: 01/06/2016
Label: Totem Cat Records ||
Opoponax Records
Their slow but towering sound, such as on the grim skin crawler of ‘Night
Creeps’, is hypnotic at worst, utterly captivating at best. But it is their ability to inject pace into
their songs that, as would continue to be the case with later releases, stands
as the record’s greatest moment.
“Forever Dead, Forever Stoned” CS//DD//LP track
listing:
Side Dead
1).
God Like
2).
Blackfire
3).
Mourning Sun
Side Stoned
4).
Opoponax
5).
Night Creeps
6).
Maleficium (Bonus Track)
The Review:
The
music industry needs bands like Goya. For, since 2012
they have been steadily churning out releases of consistent, Electric Wizard worshipping quality without fuss. They seem
to roll up, light up and release the smoke dwelling jams that happen under the
influence of the sweet leaf. There is no egotism, no attention hailing headline
grabbing from the Arizona trio; their sole focus is on writing music of a
staunch, demented and doom nature and inspiration, it seems, is never scarce
for the band. They possess a work ethic you just have to admire.
‘Forever
Dead, Forever Stoned’
represents their first steps as a band, their first demo now re-mastered for
vinyl release. Now replenished with a crisper sound, it succeeds March’s buzz
saw ‘The Enemy’ EP and 2015’s potent
opus ‘Obelisk’, it is a record which
represents the child of bong water and Black Sabbath. Nothing
has changed in this band’s innocent ‘lets get fucked and write some tunes’
approach to songwriting since this debut, and to hear it with an improved
quality is great fun.
Their
slow but towering sound, such as on the grim skin crawler of ‘Night Creeps’, which hollers the
album’s title over funeral procession drum work, is hypnotic at worst, utterly
captivating at best. All unpolished whines of feedback and cracklings of fuzz
pedals dialled just that little bit too dirty, offering further flavour to
their witches brew.
But
it is their ability to inject pace into their songs – and consequently a
defining diversity amongst many of their peers – that, as would continue to be
the case with later releases, stands as the record’s greatest moment. The
jittering grooves of ‘Blackfire’
that warp and contort with the swing of Uncle Acid and the evil
grimace of Candlemass are rich in character, infectious
in the way that pinging snare drum buries itself deep into your psyche. The
guitar work is fired up, the whole song possessed by a driving thump that
mutates into an almighty racket come its final throes; delay infested wah and
banshee scream feedback their weapons of choice here.
‘Maleficium’, the album’s slow but
deadly closing number, echoes with the sound of the final nail being carefully
fixed into a coffin, before once again a show stealing pace explosion turns all
that on its head. You could argue that the mix is a little muddy here, neither
the vocals, guitars, drums nor bass dominating proceedings at any given moment,
but the raucous result is one of a unified noise that, put simply, just makes
you wanna get high and have a good fucking time. The record, and indeed the
band on the whole, was founded upon that mentality and all their imperfections,
for this writer at least, are great big plus points.
RIYL: Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath,
Sleep
