Ever come across a band or an album that goes so far beyond making you hate it you actually start to dislike music itself, even if it's just a little bit? Well I wasn't sure that was possible until I came across THE WHOREHOUSE MASSACRE's 2015 compilation album "Altar of the Goat Skull/VI".

Now before I dissect this absolute disgrace of an album, let me just be totally clear about something: I loathe the Sludge/Drone/Funeral subgenres with a passion. I've never heard a good song come out of that genre, except when someone makes the horrible mistake of trying to combine it with another - real - genre of music, in which case it's always the other genre doing the heavy lifting of making something listenable out of it. So keep that in mind when reading on, because to my ears, this album is the incarnation of everything I don't like in Metal music.

For starters, the sound is horrid - and I mean that in every way imaginable: There's none - zero - thought given to the sound production, as the instruments sound dull, dead and often just drowned by distortion, white noise or one another. I think I'm serious when I say that you could walk in on an amateur band consisting solely of teenagers who've played an instrument less than a year - combined - and you'd hear more thought given to actually making sure that the music you play can be heard properly. But that's assuming there's some music worth being heard, and that's just not on the case on "Altar of the Goat Skull/VI".

Because unless there's enough bad here to make the negative math reverse and work for the opposite, there's just not a song on this 13 track long compilation album that's worth listening to. The instrumental work sound amateurish, for a lack of better words. Everything, from the drumming to the guitar riffs, is so simple and lackluster that I think even modern Pop bands would frown at how just lacking and soulless it is. Hell, I don't think there's a single verse, section or riff in the over 45 minutes of the album that gave me as much as a spark of hope that there could be something worth listen to if separated from the remaining album. I would like to say that the vocal work is its one sole redeeming factor, but frankly the only reason I even start to think so is because the rest is just so bad.

Am I being unfair? I'd like to think I am, and that someone can actually enjoy this album; that maybe it's the perfect album for those who love Sludge/Drone/Funeral Metal, which would be nice if it was because at least then someone could claim it wasn't a complete waste of time.

But to me, THE WHOREHOUSE MASSACRE's "Altar of the Goat Skull/VI" is an album that literally does not have a single redeeming quality, and thus no reason to listen to. From the sound quality to the instrumental work to the songwriting to the very heart of the music, it's all abhorrently bad, and this I think is the first time I've ever felt the need to say this about a piece of music: Stay away from this!