Golgothan Remains – Perverse Offerings To The Void

As we all know Australia has been a reliable fertile breeding ground for some of the most insidious extreme metal acts around and Golgothan Remains can be added to that eponymous list with their incendiary debut album. With the band members having previous experience in other underground extreme metal acts it should come as no surprise that this debut hits the ground running when it opens with ‘Vehemence (Through Pain Divine)’ after a brief intro piece to it. An escalation of background noise in the song raises the tension, building towards the opening gelatinous riff that oozes from the track and links cohesively to the transition in speed brought about by the suffocating blast intensity. The switches in tempo throughout this release are excellent as ‘From Chaos It Has Come’ follows and heightens the power with an intermittent double bass roll coupled to an eerie blackish hook that signifies the increase in velocity.

The way the songs veer from utter demented speed to slower doom death slithering is formidable as the superb ‘Vile Blasphemy’ so easily explores from its ghastly opening gutter trawling riff to the abrupt pace change as the vocals have that deep, resonating and cavernous tone that makes each track grotesquely fascinating. The wall of sound generated on this album has an impenetrable sludge like pulverising in places as ‘Bone From Dust’ so ably exemplifies and when the song sharply crosses into a calmer section that asphyxiating drum work strangles the song, shaking the very last vitality from the track. There are no fillers on this album, just songs you will prefer over others as each has a colossal density that pours down onto you like molten tar, as even the interlude ‘Void’ has a macabre aura and breaks the album in half and leads into the pungent ‘Timeless Eradicator’ as the guitar work has subtle hooks nailed to the fabric of the songs structure. There are similarities to acts like Incantation, Immolation, Funebrarum etc as the album has that smothering ethos favoured by those acts as the riff break and subsequent double bass is thunderous.

It is good to hear a death metal album that sticks to being as monstrous and corrupted as it can be as ‘Looped Depraved Spell’ has a caustic riff break that matches the outright brutality of the bands namesake song ‘Golgothan Remains’, a vicious psychotic tune that drags the listener through vats of boiling sludge and links into the albums closer ‘Flagellation (Torrid Tongues)’.  The song is the longest on the album and allows the song writing to evolve the tune into a beast of epic proportions as the riff break incursions add considerable power and aggression to the song and ends the album superbly.

Few acts rarely get the balance between utter remorseless savagery and devastating choking phases but Golgothan Remains does that with consummate ease on their debut release.


  1. Vehemence (Through Pain Divine)
  2. From Chaos It Has Come
  3. Vile Blasphemy
  4. Bone from Dust
  5. Phantom Earth
  6. Void
  7. Timeless Eradicator
  8. Looped Depraved Spell
  9. Golgothan Remains
  10. Flagellation (Torrid Tongues)


Self released
Reviewer: twansibon
Mar 1, 2018

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