“Man, when was the last time Joe cranked out two reviews in a day?!” Good question! I can’t remember myself, which means the answer surely is, “Too long.” Believe me, everyday I miss the time, effort, blood, and sweat I put into this outlet, and am grateful for those who have continued to keep up with us despite our now sporadic posting schedule (or lack thereof). However, amidst all the responsibilities of a “real job” and “adult life” (What’s that?), sometimes an album will come along that no matter how busy your itinerary gets, you make time for it regardless, like Goetia’s Mortuary Cult.
Now this band isn’t completely new to me. Like most of the sick TRUE death metal bands terrorizing the underground these days, Goetia was brought to my attention a few years ago by Molder mastermind and dear friend (God, I’m sounding like Eddie Trunk now), Aaren Pantke. Their eponymous 2023 EP certainly turned my head a time or two, Linda Blair style, for its unique take on classic first wave death metal with a blatantly horrific, occult twist. Subsequent EPs in 2024’s Tomb Essence and 2025’s Otherworldly Agency saw them expand their palette even further, leading to their debut full length strike, Mortuary Cult.
As the album title, artwork, and song titles would have you aware, Goetia are not a band interested in cheap gore, zombie flicks, and your run of the mill shock tactics that became cliche in the days of Cannibal Corpse. Their souls (or what’s left of them) lies somewhere between this realm and the next: A dimension too terrifying for mere mortals to fathom. It shows in their lyrical content, riffs, and arrangements, the same way Altars of Madness era Morbid Angel left many a headbanger saying, “Lucifer must be the unofficial fifth member of this band.”
While there certainly is a Morbid Angel flavor to this album, an MA clone Goetia is not. If anything, this band lies closer to unsung demo legends, Necrovore, especially for the way in which they utilize demonic riffing and nightmarish textures. Look no further than cuts like the title track, “Bestial Tomb”, and “Excarnation”, each oozing with that primordial unease of pure death metal circa ’87. There’s also an underlying, grinding intensity throughout, particularly on “Posthumous Execution” and “Earth Inferno”, which recalls the barbaric maneuvers of Angelcorpse, though without ever explicitly crossing the threshold of what one would brand as war metal.
Throw in some crushing Cianide tinged riffs guaranteed to crush your innards to a pulp, and an unrelenting zeal to the trio’s delivery which never lets up, and you’ve got yourself one beast of a death metal album. No doubt about it, this band has taken the best qualities of their EPs and expanded upon them in a manner that I’m not sure even I could’ve foreseen. Of course, I say this as if I have psychic powers, when in reality, Wisconsin Dells legend, Zoltar, can see further into the future than I can. However, I can say this much: If Goetia continues further down this path, their future is dark and deadly!
8 out of 10
Label: Carbonized Records
Genre: Death Metal
For fans of: Necrovore, Morbid Angel, Angelcorpse
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