Exclusive premiere + interview: GOATHAMMER “Ceremony of Morbid Destruction”

Hi guys! Ceremony of Morbid Destruction will be released in 4 days, today is the day of an exlcusive album premiere in full so I’m going to ask you some questions. First, tell us the main idea of Ceremony of Morbid Destruction and if there is some special message to the listeners?

Ceremony of Morbid Destruction is a collection of seven hymns of desecration, death worship and praise of demonic entities. Our individual lives were savage and destructive during the writing/recording process of this record and we believe the music reflects that. The “:message” will be interpreted in many ways by various individuals that obtain our material. We can’t control who discovers and listens to our music but we can only hope this ends up in the hands of true maniacs, satanic skinheads, witches, and over the top destruction worshippers. We must preserve the ancient flame of BESTIAL, DESTRUCTIVE and EVIL black and thrashing death metal.

Ceremony of Morbid Destruction is the first Goathammer’s album, you have released one split-album and two demos before, I never heard of your band before but I was really impressed by Ceremony of Morbid Destruction when I received promo. Do you think you will get enough relevant listeners from the very start?

We aren’t really concerned with relevant listeners. First and foremost, we do this for ourselves before anyone else. Having dedicated maniacs support, listen to our music and understand it is a bonus but it isn’t the reason we do this at all. We do this to fulfill ourselves and hear the music we want to listen to.

GOATHAMMER plays typical for Canada morbid black/death metal which should be on one shelf between Blasphemy, Conqueror, Revenge to name a few of your country-mates. How strong was your inspiration by these bands and what do you think about such gods like Sarcofago etc (I mean those non US/CA bands)? I also hear some traditional black metal tunes in your music, Astral Crucifixion would be the best example.

Of course we absolutely fucking worship BLASPHEMY. They have been one of our biggest inspirations since day one. They were/are such an important band for our country and they really paved the way for plenty of Canadian black/death metal bands AND black/death maniacs all over the world. Their influence is eternal. Other Canadian bands that must be worshipped and appreciated are CONQUEROR, SLAUGHTER, VOOR, LUST, OUROBOROS, SACRAMENTARY ABOLISHMENT, and RAZOR.

We also listen to plenty of bands that are from outside of North America like SARCOFAGO, VULCANO, SEPULTURA, MYSTIFIER, PARABELLUM, SADISTIK EXEKUTION, BESTIAL WARLUST, SPEAR OF LONGINUS and VOMITOR of course, since they are some of the most VIOLENT and EVIL bands of all time. BATHORY, ROOT, MASTER’S HAMMER, VON, DARKTHRONE, BEHERIT, MUTIILATION, VLAD TEPES and plenty of others are probably the reason you hear “traditional black metal” in our material.

You guys are inspired by such themes like Satanism, Occultism, Misanthropy, Desecration. Can you tell me more on this topic, like what was happened in your life you have changed your minds (I mean you couldn’t praise these topics since childhood and you have found it somehow).

All band members are individually possessed by the spirit of EVIL METAL and all got into those topics via metal records, tapes and CDs. As we have aged we all gained more and more interest in those topics until they started influencing our day to day lives.

Nowadays we all live absolutely dedicated to our work in music which is a spiritual practice in our minds. BEWARE!!! METAL CORRUPTS THE YOUTH. KEEP THEM AWAY FROM EVIL METAL OR THEY WILL DEVELOP BELIEF IN OCCULT FORCES!!

What I have found was you are using some non typical for goat BDM guitar solos in your songs (example – Invoking The Sadistic Spirits), so I’m sure bestial black/death metal is not your only favorite genre? Do you listen to some not so “brutal” music, beyond of black and death metal?

Those solos are likely a direct result of the heavy metal we were listening to a lot at the time of recording the most recent album. We all listen to other genres such as punk/hardcore punk, heavy metal, hard rock, Oi! and pure rock ‘n’ roll. One of our biggest influences isn’t necessarily black or death metal but SHOW NO MERCY by SLAYER is one of the most inspiring and crushing albums known to man. We also listen to plenty of others; MOTORHEAD, IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, THIN LIZZY, RUNNING WILD, DISCHARGE, GBH, GISM, AMEBIX, BLACK UNIFORMS, ANTI-CIMEX, SSDECONTROL, COMBAT 84 and ANAL CUNT

The Goathammer’s line-up contains musicians from such bands like Autaric, Necromantic Worship, Druidus. I noticed all those bands were splitted-up, what happened you couldn’t continue with these? The same genres, but what a problem?

DRUIDUS was a very early band of Sadowulf and Depravore’s and split because of inexperience, lack of focus, equipment and musicianship. Autaric and Necromantic Worship were bands that Daemonomancer was involved in playing drums. Sadowulf played bass for a few Autaric live shows but Autaric ended shortly after Goathammer was started. Daemonomancer was also involved in Necromantic Worship for recording purposes after Goathammer and NW got in contact and traded tapes. Ghûllzaraën (founding member of Necromantic Worship) ended the project to direct his time and dedication towards his occult practices.

Possessor (bass-player) came to the band in 2016 after Goathammer recorded self-titled demo. Did he brought some fresh ideas to Goathammer’s music? Maybe some lyrics and couple of blasphemous rhythms? Do you think nowadays Goathammer has stable and powerful line-up?

Possessor was a supporter of Goathammer since our early days and we also very much respect and support his project NOXIUS NEX. I don’t know if he brought “fresh” ideas since Goathammer had our own way of writing/doing things in general before he joined. However, he brought even more maniacal and DEMENTED energy to our cult. His bass playing is violent and his ideas/behaviour in everyday life is much like his bass playing. He will likely contribute lyrics and backing vocals on future recordings and live gigs.

Cryptfucking Demonizers of Holocaustic Wrath [split], XIX Pentacles, XCII Legions… and Goathammer demos released on Tape format, do not you want to put those demos as a bonus for some of future releases? I listened to XIX Pentacles, XCII Legions… and it sounds truly killer! Maybe you will re-record some demo songs in the future? I could understand if it was Tape only releases, but those are uploaded on Bandcamp so everybody along with old-school metalheads having access to the music.

Daemonomancer recently quit, but we have a replacement for him within our cult; he hammers the skins in another band of ours BLADEFORCE. He will remain unnamed for now… Goathammer had a stable lineup very shortly after the departure of our drummer (who was a very important aspect to the founding of this band). GOATHAMMER will end when we die. Until then, the war grinds on.

Goathammer do not have such modern things like Facebook etc, just bandcamp for music streaming. Is this all about “anti-social”, “misanhtropic” attitude?

We are usually too focused on writing new material to worry about our older stuff. However, the self-titled demo will be released in mLP format eventually… When we have the time we will re-release our older stuff but it isn’t a huge concern to us right now… The only things on the agenda right now are writing/recording new material with our new drummer and playing shows all over this disgusting planet.

Well, do you believe old-school metal attitude like supporting Vinyls etc will die in the near future? Do you believe in global digitalization?

Essentially, yes. We were all sick of social media bullshit involved with extreme metal so we removed our presence from social media since it seemed quite pointless and more of a distraction than anything.

Global digitalization?!? What does that mean?! COMPUTER WORLD MAKES ME SICK.

Records will never die. Tapes will never die. EVIL SATANIK METAL WILL NEVER DIE AS LONG AS THE MANIACS TAKE THE TORCH AND PRESERVE THE ANCIENT FLAMES OF OCCULT METAL.