Friday 11 October 2013

GOYA - 777 - Album Review

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Goya is a Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal Band from Phoenix, Az, USA
 
The members are:
 
Jeff Owens - vocals/guitar
Nick Lose - drums
Jirix-Mie Paz - bass

Goya have been on this blog when I featured their excellent debut demo back in Nov 2012. It was a blistering example of Electric Wizard/Black Sabbath/Sleept stlye worship with huge amounts of riffs. Yeah it made me a fan of the band.
 
12 months later the band are going to release their eagerly awaited debut album – 777. A 51 minunte blast of awesome riffs. Goya are releasing this album in two stages.
 
1st Stage 

BLACK LIGHT EDITION IS SOLD OUT.

Limited edition of 30 of our upcoming debut full-length 777. 20 are the regular limited edition, and 10 are the super-limited, ultra-cool blacklight edition, printed with fluorescent ink! Each one comes in a plastic sleeve with:

-12" vinyl of "777" pressed on 150-gram recycled black vinyl

-one-sided, 12" x 18", 6-color, professionally screened exclusive cover drawn by Laney Oleniczak

-two-sided, B&W, 11" x 11", numbered insert/lyric sheet

-download code
 

2nd Stage which is the normal vinyl and digital download option will be available by end of December 2013. 

But I wanted to hear this album now and to provide my thoughts on the album. I asked the band and they kindly agreed to give me a promo copy which I am extremely grateful for. So what do we have. Well we have GOYA’s calling card to the world of Stoner/Sludge/Doom Metal that a great band has truly arrived.
 
777 is a gigantic buldozer of riffs. Nothing much has changed since Goya’s debut demo release. Well apart from the band have upped the volume of their music to huge levels. First track – Rites Of Hashage – is an actioned packed 9 minute blast of head-banging riffs for you to check out. Fans of Sabbath, Electric Wizard and Sleep will rejoice as they may have a new favourite band to follow. Top notch vocals and riffs combine to make this a brilliant track to open the album with.
 
2nd track – Necromance – is another riff-fuelled odyssey for you to be hooked on. Goya are virtually unstoppable here. Vocalist Jeff may not show many emotions at first but give it time as his power and precision will win you over. This dude sounds like he has seen it all and still lived to tell the tale. The band is throwing some mightly brutal riffs for him to tell his story to. Just sit back and enjoy this dark tale.
 
At this point, you can feel the heavy pulsating riffs that GOYA are playing through your speakers. It is a good job that Goya have 4 heavy slabs of awesome tunes to go through. As you are in for one heck of a wild ride.
 
3rd Track – Night Creeps – starts off with a bass driven riff before the powerful drums and guitar riffs come screeching in. An almost 12 minute ride into the dark demonic world that Goya have managed to build through the power of the almighty riff. This is a doom-laiden thrill-ride that will send chills down your spine. Vocalist is singing his heart and soul out here. It gives the track a superb hard-rocking occult vibe to get your teeth stuck into. You will need to take a rest after this song, as Goya are unrelentless here. My advice is to take a moments rest before the next epic track starts.
 
OK – You have had your brief rest. Time to start again for the remaining songs to crush your soul to.
 
4th track – Death's Approaching Lullaby– is probably the sweetest natured track on the album. Come on its called Death's Approaching Lullaby. What did you expect? A 13-minute epic full of more blazing riffs for you to sell your soul to. Well that is exactly what this track is. Another wonderful epic track for Goya to show their brilliant talents to the world. Long drawn out riffs where the speakers are amped upto volume 666. Expect huge amounts of distortion to enhance your experience that little bit more…
 
So what do we have next for the final two tracks – Blackfire and Bad Vibes. Well we have 13 more minutes of crushing Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal riffs for Goya to slay you with. And believe me they do. These two tracks are probably the best two tracks on the album as they are both played at a furious pace.
 
Bad Vibes ends the album on an almighty high. And with a name like Bad Vibes, GOYA unleash some unwanted anger and fury off their chest. It is a song we can all relate to when having a bad day and this song is the perfect soundtrack to get all the negative things off your chest.
 
777 is an excellent debut record. It is full of mean riffs that should get GOYA more exposure within the Doom/Stoner Metal scene. The production is immense on the album. So no complaints on that score.
 
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
 
The “normal” version of the album will be released by the end of year on Digital Download and Vinyl. Thanks to the band for sending me a copy to review. Much appreciated.

Check The Band From Links Below