Blood For The Master
[Album Review]
“Blood For The Master” was released on February 13th, 2012, though in some interviews from that time period, people thought that it came out on Valentine’s day. Close enough I guess. In various interviews with Ben Falgoust, he is quoted as saying that it wasn’t intentional, and just turned out that way.
Either way, the album starts out immediately in what is like a punch in the junk, a punch in the pussy which could summon blood…for the master.
This was Goatwhore’s 5th album, and the third produced by Erik Rutan. It’s a relatively short album, at 38 minutes, but the 37-40 minute area seems to be the sweet spot for Goatwore.
This time around, they had James Harvey on bass, who really seemed to change things around. James seemed to be like a breath of fresh air in the band, his playing style seemed to be a lot more naturally in tune with Zack and Sammy’s James having this Rock N Roll type style which perfectly melded with Zack’s drum style. What I also liked about James’ playing, was that he naturally was the rhythm to Sammy’s playing. You can tell that he just naturally knew what to do on that album. And I think that something should be said too, of the way this album is mixed. This one is much better than its predecessor, as each instrument is equal! I don’t have to turn on the equalizer to hear someone! Naturally, James’ bass is audible, and clearly there. You just have to know what you’re looking for.
“Parasitic Scriptures of The Sacred Word” is a fun and punky song. It really marks the beginning of this cycle of Goatwhore, where they endured this thrashy punk sound which became popular for this era. I can’t help but be a bit nostalgic when thinking of this time period. I graduated high school in 2011, and remember going to the record store with my first boyfriend. We’d browse the records at Ernie November’s in Rapid City, and on the speakers, music in this same tune would be playing.
I remember this era of “Neo-Thrash”, if that’s what you want to call it, becoming quite popular in the metal scene back in the 2010’s. I remember going to concerts in 2015 and 2016 that would have bands playing in this similar style. I remember this era of metal music quite well, and find myself very nostalgic about it, looking back. In many ways, this album reminds me of those nights walking around Downtown San Antonio waiting for a show to start; or going to the Korova when I went to see Deicide, and other bands. This album reminds me of those days where I went to the Aztec theater to see various bands there, like Steel Panther, Down, Obituary, and Cannibal Corpse. In some ways, it is like a bittersweet memory of the past.
I’m not that fond of the song “Judgement of the Bleeding Crown”. It’s not bad, but it just doesn’t groove to me. “Beyond The Spell of Discontent” is the same to me. Not bad, but I just don’t personally care for the blatant brute force of the riffs. Granted, I love that riff at the 2 minute mark of the song, where it’s got that bit of kundalini in it. But I’m a sucker for any time Sammy bends his guitar strings.
My absolute favorite song on this album is “Death To The Architects of Heaven”! It is like water in some ways. The song just flows. I don’t know why they never played this song live, at any of the shows of theirs that I went to. This song would be so awesome to hear live! It grooves, it’s thrashy, it’s punky, and dare I say, it’s something to shake your ass to! This song is a great example of the genius that Sammy Duet is capable of. I don’t know what magick happened for this song to come out this way, but something perfect happened here. I think that this is among one of Goatwhore’s greatest songs, seriously. What makes this song a bit different too, is how Sammy’s playing is like a storm, yes, but not in the usual frozen rain type of way that is on the rest of the album. This song is more like a summer storm, where the water is cool, but not freezing. Where the softness of the water breaks on your skin, and does not hurt, but there is still that danger of drowning.
The song right after that, “An End To Nothing”, is a great tune too. It’s a short song, but very fun and punky. I don’t recall them ever playing this one live at any of the shows I went to, though I wish they did. I know that this would be a great one live, people thrashing around, surely.
The final song on the album, “My Name Is Frightful Among The Believers” is an interesting one. Not because of anything different instrumentally, but it oddly reminds me of Anton Lavey. The song is 4 minutes and 11 seconds long, and Anton Lavey was born on April 11th. Even to this day, in 2025, there are Evangelists that use his name as a sort of boogeyman…making him frightful among believers. Probably a complete coincidence, but I thought that was interesting to note. The lyrics are obviously about apocalyptic themes though.
I don’t really have much to say about the album’s lyrics. It’s the same thing you’d normally expect from Ben Falgoust. He remains in the realm of the esoteric and anti-Christian, though you start to see on this album, his writing take a turn to fit the cadence of Sammy’s guitar playing. This doesn’t abbreviate the length of what is written, but the style more so. To me, reading through his lyrics, you see Benjamin become a bit more in tune with writing for the style of a song, and just a smidgen less of the verbose flow of literature that he’s accustomed to.
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Blood For The Master marks the first of Goatwhore’s albums to have art created by Jordan Barlow. Barlow, a tattoo artist, and musician in his own right, would later go on to be employed for the art of the next three albums after this one. I think that he was great choice for becoming their album artist, as Barlow has a very esoteric style, and interests himself it seems. This seems to be something that he and Benjamin seemed to have bonded over, as you see a lot of the lyrics represented through Barlow’s art in the next releases also.
On the back of the album, you see more of Jordan’s artwork. What’s interesting to me, is how there are sigils of the band’s names at the bottom of the hourglass. Inside, is something that looks like a granfalloon, mourning souls in the hourglass of time.
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Overall, I think that Blood For The Master is a good album. It’s fun and punky at times, and nostalgic for that early 2010’s era. If you were the type to go to shows during this time period, for any band, this album might remind you of that.
-Mariah
