Goat The Head

Serious symptoms of imminent deathrash

Tick, tack! The pest and plague is back! Norway’s premiere metal grottonauts, Goat the Head, is unexpectedly at it again! A hard rock band attempting death metal, or a death metal band attempting hard rock? The mystery has haunted fans and foes for almost two decades.

Howling along to the birth cry of the third millennium, Goat the Head was hatched from ideals of sincerity, intensity and insanity. The band burst onto the metal music scene in a flurry of fur-hair and filth with the crude “Neander Tales EP” (Left Horn Records, 2006), introducing the public to their own particular take on the Contemporary Primal Caveman Death Metal genre. The addition of bizarre and entrancing live shows created a significant underground notoriety and foundation was laid for a proper debut album the following year.

On “Simian Supremacy“ (Tabu Recordings, 2007) the band ramped up their troglodyte game considerably. Popularity grew beyond Norwegian borders, and the band had amassed some sort of sick cult following. The strange and cinematic music video for the sixteen second song “Darwinian Minions” didn’t exactly hinder that. Live appearances grew in quantity, energy and sheer outlandishness. After witnessing Goat the Head live in a London boxing ring, HIM’s Ville Valo compared the spectacle to “watching the Animal Planet with a chainsaw gaffa-taped to your head”. 

Follow up album “Doppegängers” (Aftermath Music, 2010) represented a great evolutionary leap for the heads. Smelly pelts were shrouded in fancy space threads, both visually and sonically. The album was mixed and mastered by Tue Madsen, giving it its loud, violent and mechanical quality. It also saw a more experimental side to the band, like on the death metal gospel crossover duet “This Tube is the Gospel” together with Kirsti Huke.

The band quickly returned to an earthlier ambience with a thrash-tinged 7-inch, “Wicked Mimicry” (Left Horn Records 2011). But this would signify the suspension of all endeavour for the group. Bones and brains had grown weary. The body was laid to rest.

Now however, the body is showing some serious symptoms of imminent deathrash. It would appear Goat the Head is reemerging from the mire with rejuvenated vigor and a brand new album! “Strictly Physical” is a groovy and organic metal amalgam whose tar-dripping characteristics was conceived in Oslo’s Amper Tone Studios in cahoots with producer Bård Ingebrigtsen.

Album is released on magnificent vinyl by Crispin Glover Records on the 12th of February 2021!

Ketil L. Sæther: Guitars
Per Spjøtvold: Vocals and organ
Kenneth Kapstad: Drums
Trond Frønes: Bass