Goatsnake

Leave it to Los Angeles’ lords of doom, Goatsnake, to rise from the grave and exhale their last breath in the form of a battering-ram bricolage of odds ‘n’ sods. With only five songs, Trampled Under Hoof re-assembles the band (Wool front-man Pete Stahl, Sunn0))) six-stringer Greg Anderson, with Obsessed/Kyuss bassist Scott Reeder and Cave In drummer John-Robert Conners in tow) for three new tracks, one previously released cover and a bonus cut from the vaults. "Portraits Of Pain” and the more urgent "Black Cat Bone,” (first found on Southern Lord’s Let There Be Doom 2 sampler) revisit the numbingly glorious bleakness of Goatsnake’s 1999 debut, but it’s "Juniors Jam” that slows down the pace to molasses-speed and highlights Stahl’s ever-gilded clean vocals — and his more tolerable and tasteful harmonica. The godly cover of Saint Vitus’ "Burial At Sea” is repeated from the 2000 split with Burning Witch on Hydra Head, but the true nugget is a reading of "Hot Rod” from ’70s Southern rockers Black Oak Arkansas that is a thousand times heavier than the original. Eternal disciples of the patron saint Vitus, Goatsnake invite fans over for one last blow-out, and Trampled is well worth the ticket price.