Give it up for Godeater, outta Texas, y’all! Some bruising deathcore with symphonic elements. In their short existence of three years, they released an EP, Divine Abstraction, in 2023. Although there were two instrumentals on it, the three other songs were pretty damn righteous.
Now we have the 11-song debut album – Madness of the Void. Mitchell Christian – Bass, Amir Abdullah – Drums, CJ Salinas on Guitars, and CJ Salazar on Vocals all know the elements of deathcore and what makes a kick-ass album.
“In Ashes and Creation” opens the album with a synth intro, which stays the course in the background as the beatdown music gets going, equipped with some blast beats. Around the 1.15 mark, the song gets softer, then the heaviness and blasting is interwoven. Lots of beatdown grooves, but at over three and a half minutes, this instrumental wears out its welcome. Way too long to open your debut album with such a long instrumental where there are many areas to toss in vocals. They kinda missed the mark there.
“Conqueror of Kings” is next and is volcanic in its eruption with symphonic elements and terrific vocals. The slam at 1.25 is crucial and quite punishing. The dual vocal elements help out, and the bludgeoning continues with monster slams, getting into a slower type of slams, like The Acacia Strain. We even get treated to a nifty guitar solo. The song picks up the pace with tremendous blast beats and higher, raspier vocals before a more bludgeoning groove. There is a killer growl around the three-minute mark, a shouted vocal style, then back to the gutturals, which lead into a sloth like slam. Slow. Deliberate. Crushing. Heavy. This is the song that needed to open the album. Monstrous.
The band shot a video for “Architect of Bone”, and the song opens up with intensity. Monster blasts and cool guitar harmonies. Vocals are utterly brilliant, and the guitar tone will destroy you. Around the 1.25 section, some ‘bree’ type of guttural vocals, with other varying tones, really keep things interesting. Terrific monstrous growls which extend for several seconds and truly add dimension. There are some Fallujah like ethereal guitar moments, then more stop-and-start blasts and plenty of galloping moments. The slams toward the end of the song deliver a knockout punch fairly quickly.
Yasmine Liverneaux, from Face Yourself, helps out in the vocal department with “Sands of Time”. The song has tempo shifts and a multitude of vocal tones. Towards the end of the song, Yasmine lets loose with some filthy rattlesnake-inspired, snake-like vocals as if she is coming through the microphone and spitting venom in our faces. This song has more killer slams and yet another kick-ass tune.
“Obsidian Empire” has great music, yet at over five minutes, another wasted effort by the band to toss in another long deathcore instrumental. Many areas of this track scream vocals and growls!!! At over eight minutes, “Madness of the Void” closes out this album. Tons of varying vocal tones, and the guitar harmonies are beautiful in this song. The bludgeoning heaviness and blasting at the one-minute mark will level cities from Texas to Istanbul. The rhythm section, at the 1.30 mark, is super powerful, and then we get treated to another guitar solo over the blast, and this moment resembles technical death metal at its finest. This song starts slowing down with a disgusting guttural slam at the five-minute mark. Quiet moments are welcomed in with various sound effects, symphonic in nature, until the music returns with a technical deathcore, polyrhythmic groove. It’s pretty complicated, and this instrumentation piece closes out the album.
If you’re into bands like Worm Shepherd, Mental Cruelty, Whitechapel, and Angelmaker, you will no doubt enjoy Godeater. While the symphonic elements are there, they never become focal points, and the band is quite impressive, musically speaking. Super talented. Their EP was banging, and this surpasses that. Their penchant for these long instrumentals, strewn across the album, is confusing to me. It’s a bit much – rein it in fellas. I’m cool with opening deathcore instrumentals to get the ball rolling, but only for like a minute and a half or so.
Outside of that, the production is crushing, and I love this album cover. Madness of the Void is an impressive debut album that, in some ways, “out-heavies” their deathcore competition; that is how heavy this album is. Great beatdown deathcore!
