Slovakian blackened death metal act Goholor (enochian for ‘ascend’) has been around since 2016, but Locus Damnatorum is their debut album. Either way, they are new to me, but on this debut, they have dropped one of my favorite albums of the year so far.
Leaning a little more into the death side of blackened death metal, Goholor’s sound is a rough and ready sort of gruff, semi-melodic, but more blasty version of the death metal played by House of Atreus, and (I CAN’T FUCKING STRESS THIS ENOUGH – IN SOUND ONLY), Arghoslent.
And while the safe comparison is the likes of Behemoth or Hate, when you listen to some of the more dissonant chord progressions about a minute into just the opener “Demonical Redemption”, or in the 5th track “Ominous Delusion”. You can hear it.
That said, all the tracks have similar hues of stammering, discordant yet layered, even somehow melodic riffs that are often simply killer. There are a few tremolo-picked riffs here that remind me of some of the 90s melodic black/death metal acts like Gates of Ishtar (i.e., “Divine Blood Incantation”, “Embraced by Demons Spell”) and such, but for the most part, you get these skronky off-kilter but somehow harmonic riffs like the one to start “Black Rising Suffering”, the 8-minute standout “Last Groan Devoured by Death”, or the albums most ferocious track, closer “Nihilistic Torments”. There are so many great, rollicking riffs here, it’s a rare, play from start to finish type of album.
The gruff bellows of Anton (backed by guitarist Demo and his rasps), and a murky but cavernous guitar tone, keep things more death metal than black metal, as I mentioned earlier. And the end result is a gem of a record that many will overlook, but I urge you to seek this out and enjoy it as much as I did.
