With a name like GOATKRAFT you are either a Black/Death Metal band or an alternative dairy products company. In this case, it’s the former, a Black/Death Metal trio out of Bergen, Norway. GOATKRAFT formed in 2017 and has just released their sophomore full-length album, “Prophet of Eternal Damnation,” in November 2023 via the venerable Iron Bonehead Productions. The album is 29 minutes and 58 seconds (nine tracks) of utter chaos and discord.

First things first. Love the album cover. Red lettering, black background, human skull with goat horns as center imagery. Simple and striking. Second, it’s fairly well produced. Clearly it is intentionally muted and analog, but the dbs are flat out in the red through the entire album and you can still hear the separation and layering. That takes some engineering. Or maybe my hearing has finally given up and all I’m hearing is my tinnitus auditioning for a gig as an MRI soundtrack. Either way it’s hard to rein in that much destruction and still make it sound good. Kudos to the production crew. Third, this band isn’t fucking around. They clearly hate everything except making unholy Black Metal, which they do exceptionally well.

All positives have a downside. Where GOATKRAFT is unrelenting and consistent, they are also uninventive and a bit flat—as in little variation to their songwriting and compositions. Where the band is wholeheartedly devoted to a fusion of Black and Death, they little room for anything else. Again, back to variation. The thing is, once you get through the first two tracks—the atmospheric intro, “Portal to Annihilation” and blistering “Herald of Death”—the rest of the album kind of goes on repeat.

My favorite three tracks are the intro, “Portal to Annihilation,” the interlude, “Death Psalm,” and “Filth Eradication”—all for the atmosphere they lend. In short, of all the nine tracks they are the most different. All in all, there’s not a lot new going on with what GOATKRAFT is offering. Some people may see that as a bad thing; others may love it—I mean, if you have a preferred style, why walk away from it? Fans of BLASPHEMY and BEHERIT will appreciate.