Goatwhore

Blood for the Master (Metal Blade)

Six-foot-four swamp thing Ben Falgoust II lords over a stage like no other, but where his vocal command should be soul-stripping (“Collapse in Eternal Youth”), it’s subsumed by the New Orleans quartet’s typewriter attack (rat-a-tat-tat). When he’s forefront in the mix (“When Steel and Bone Meet”), he seldom screams singer. Much here to relish: cold riff sleet (“Parasitic Scriptures of the Sacred Word”), while warplane thrust in “Death to the Architects of Heaven” and backup “An End to Nothing” top off Blood for the Master. But sound execution can’t overcome a sadly generic whole. **

This article appears in August 10 • 2012.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.