Cokegoat first caught my ear over three years ago with their debut album Vessel. This Chicago sextet (three guitars, one keyboard) brings the sludge, brings the doom and a bit of black metal, too. And could there possibly be a better, more fitting album title?
Sophomore effort Drugs and Animals starts off with some unassuming clean guitar, but it’s not long before “Quiet Tyrant” makes its presence felt with some mid-paced, blackened brutality. Rwake might be a good reference point here—there’s even traces of Neurosis, particularly on the slower, airier passages. “The Burner” opens with a keyboard-accented flourish, but it’s more of a straight-forward chugger a la High on Fire. Even the vocals kinda sound like Pike. “Winter of Fear” has a bone-chilling doom intro, then moves into a mellower initial verse, trading heavy riffs with some softer sounds—the raw-leather vocals mix less effectively with the latter. But overall, it’s a pretty solid sonic brew, getting heavier as it goes along.
Cokegoat piles on the doom and gloom for a few more tunes, culminating in eight-minute epic “Kreator/Destroyer.” This one takes a little while to get up to speed, going from an effects-laden intro to a sparse sludgy stomp before all the instruments go quiet except for one guitar. This sets the tone for a gloomy, eerie, atmospheric slice of post-sludge that kinda reminds me of ISIS. Not a bad note to leave us on…
