GOATPENIS — Inhumanization (review)

Album · 2004 · War Metal

3.5/5 · 2021-07-10
siLLy puPPy

You gotta love Brazil and Latin America in general when it comes to extreme metal. They have absolutely no fucks left to give when it comes to taking the shock value to even more shocking bang for yer buck territory and even though they more often than not are following in the footsteps of their European or Norther American counterparts, once in a while a band comes along that stands out in the crowded mosh pit.

Take for example GOATPENIS which sounds pretty cliche as far as war metal bands go by today’s standards but this band from Blumenau, Brazil was actually one of the very first war metal bands to come out of Brazil along with Impurity having adopted the GOATPENIS name as far back as 1991 and existed as Suppurated Fetus from 1988 up to the name change. So we’re clearly not talking about a band that just suddenly jumped on the shock yer grandma bandwagon.

The band released a series of EPs and demos all throughout the 1990s incrementally taking them out of the deathcore / grind world of caustic metal to the more refined and musically adept world of war metal. INHUMANIZATION was the first full-length album but didn’t hit the world until 2004 a lengthy thirteen years after GOATPENIS spewed its foul semen onto an unsuspecting world. By this point the band was a well-oiled war metal machine with all the attitudes of the genre that one would expect.

War metal pretty delivers the expected results with most bands sounding identical to the undiscerning ear. GOATPENIS is no exception to this rule. War metal by definition is a caustic mix of evil as fuck sounding black metal with the musical dexterity of death metal and that’s exactly what you get with INHUMANIZATION. Described as sounding something as an answer to Canada’s Revenge with more tremolos, GOATPENIS’ also took a clue from Pig Destroyer in how to craft an album that offers contrast rather than the incessant flow of buzzsaw guitars, blastbeat fury and snarling guttural growls.

INHUMANIZATION, in its 31-minute wake of sonic destruction does indeed offer all the standard war metal traits in full abundance but differs from many other war metal bands by starting the tracks off with sound clips from various sources. The opening “Byochemical Annihilation” begins for example with an eerie sample of an old military promotional video promoting the test explosion of a hydrogen bomb before the grunt-rich metal madness begins. As the metal progresses it is also a treat that the tracks actually have variations and are not of the cookie cutter variety that many a war metal album has been guilty of .

The GOATPENIS debut is quite satisfying as it features a ridiculously heavy distorted guitar tone and exciting drum rolls outside fo the machine gun blastbeat norm of war metal. I think what sells me on this band is the distinguished vocal style of Schulz who can actually sing in a grunted style and captures a more comprehensive range than the average guttural growler. And best of all the music itself features interesting songwriting styles which transcend the oft monotonous nature of war metal.

War metal is of course an acquired taste reserved for those who crave some of the most extreme sounds to emerge from the molten metal universe and in that regard GOATPENIS delivers with a vengeance. INHUMANIZATION exhibits a filthy raw production and a fiery display of musical competence that retains its humble garage rock origins. For my tastes, war metal is often too much of a one trick pony but there are a few bands that stand out here and there and of course when it comes to this style of music, the differences are subtle. While i wouldn’t call GOATPENIS’ debut a classic by any means, it sure is a nice explosive even cathartic listening experience for those times when you just wan to say fuck it all to hell!