Just in time for spring, Rochester-based Goat Farm’s debut EP feels like some semblance of dark hope clawing its way back out of the tomb. In keeping with the band’s self-described “ethereal doom metal,” the three tracks on “Nature Takes Its Course” serve up sludgy guitar riffs, cinematic pacing and feather-light vocals that drop into cathartic screams at just the right moments.
The EP kicks off with an ominous title track about karma that feels as though it’s alive with its heartbeat-like throb of bass and drums. A warbling vein of guitar tremolo flows through the track before the drum and bass flatline, leaving you to reckon with almost a minute of particularly memorable guitar feedback.
The first track disintegrates and segues into “Lucy,” a more alt-metal track that really got itself stuck in my head. Singing about a destructive push-and-pull cycle, the track is melancholy right up until it gets furious. Over a bare bassline, vocalist Mimi eschews the classic death growl to dreamily beg you “don’t let go” over and over again. She’s accompanied by a sticky, heavy guitar riff that climbs until her plea rises up into a scream.
While the first two tracks pull you along at a deliberately honey-thick pace, the final track brings fast guitar breaks that invite you into the mosh pit. “Old Curse” provides the most intense metal energy of the EP with a runtime over eight minutes long. Pointing the finger at an “old curse,” the closer wraps the album up topically: I believed you were what / What I deserved / I have learned what I am worth.
For anyone caught up in the winter blues, this EP indulges that inner darkness. But even though Goat Farm lays on the sonic gloom, nature’s course takes us back to the spring, too.
Liz Hogrefe is a contributor to CITY.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
