• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Oct 12, 2016 Web Exclusive By Lauren Down

Requiem is the sound the air makes in Joshua Tree and Korpilombolo; the way the sky looks as it melts into the horizon. It is the taste of adventure; the joyful abandon of running from sand to sea on a cold day. A repose for the soul; a celebration of life. Essentially, what we’re trying to say is that Requiem is every bit as exuberant as we’ve come to expect from our favorite masked Swedes—even if they have described it as their “folk album.”

The sprawling 13-track release that is GOAT’s third studio full-length certainly allows each track to breathe more than ever before but even in their more subdued acoustic state the band’s full weight can be felt. We’re still talking endless mysticism, acid trip guitars, Afropop beats, tribal rhythms, bucolic melodies, desert blues, rich textures, and transcendent funk grooves.

“Union of Sun and Moon,” “I Sing Silence,” and closing track “Ubuntu” belong very much to the early hours, a sonic version of the crisp morning light tugging at your eyelids. Deeper into the center of the record is when everything gets hazy. Highlights “Temple Rhythms,” “Goatband,” and “Goatfuzz” weave a labyrinth of ceremonial psychedelic freak outs and heavier guitar riffs in which we become lost, only to emerge squarely inside the drum circle—being lead around the billowing flames of a late night fire.

Whatever GOAT’s origin—Korpilombolo voodoo, shamanism, paganism, or none of the above—we’re happy to be part of the ritual. (www.goatsweden.blogspot.ca)

Author rating: 8/10