Where is the goat and the chariot? Where is the Billy horn that was blowing? The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into the fowl of a Tyrant. 2020 saw the metalverse shaken to its core by the massively infectious sophomore album by Belgian black/trad/thrashers Bütcher. So much rowdy fun was 666 Goats Carry My Chariot that it mattered not a wit that it was entirely composed of well-trod metal tropes. The hyperactive 80s speed with blackened edges was just the right mixture of heavy, catchy, and over-the-top with songs that had teeth. Fast-forward to 2024 and we get the much-anticipated follow-up On Fowl of Tyrant Wing. Can these unheralded goat hoarders rebottle the lightning and magic that made 666 such an out-of-left-field brain smasher? That’s no small ask and no easy feat to manage, even with unlimited goatpower at their disposal!
Things open with a slick intro loaded with NWoBHM flavor with regal guitar lines that reek of Savage Grace. From there you get launched into burning chaos with the crazy speed-thrashing rampage of “Speed Metal Samurai.” Yes, it’s a cheeseball title but the song is this album’s version of “Iron Bitch” off of 666, so you’ll get shaken, slapped up, and brutally prodded. R Hellshrieker is once again an unhinged maniac at the mic, screaming, growling, shrieking, and singing with lunatic gusto and verve. He even adopts very ICS Vortex high-register cleans for dramatic effect. Rabid riffs and crazed harmonies storm with menace beneath his ravings and the hyperkinetic energy cannot be denied or restrained. The commitment to excess splashes over into “Blessed by the Blade” and the 80s live loudly in the resulting mayhem. It’s speed metal all day with a slight blackened touch and it’s madcap, raucous fun. Hellshrieker straddles the line between enthusiastic thrash bark and wailing King Diamond-esque dramatics to good effect and classic metal elements round out the bashing and add a veneer of accessibility and class. An especially wild outburst arrives with “Keep the Steele (Flamin’ Hot)” where all the chains come off and the Mad Bütcher runs amok. It’s a nuclear speed bomb with no guard rails to keep it safe and things get out of control fast. Hellshrieker really goes off the reservation here, screaming, roaring, and adding little King Diamond theatrics in a vocal slurry. His commands to “bow down to the Powerlord” are especially endearing as that was my nickname in high school.
The second half of On Fowl of Tyrant Wing is a different beast of an altered color. The last few songs are all much longer and more involved, trying to suture a ton of ideas into cohesive pieces of music with varying degrees of success. “A Sacrifice to Satan’s Spawn” welds NWoBHM bits to Mercyful Fate-esque pieces and slathers it all with guitar-forward excess and a somewhat “restrained” performance by Hellshrieker. It works because it asserts a modicum of moderation. 9-plus minute closer “An Ending in Fyre” exercises not such discipline, dumping Viking black metal, NWoBHM, and classic metal into an industrial cow juicer with unusual flavors flopping out of the thresher. It has good bits and interesting moments but it’s messy, feels a bit forced and duct-taped together, and after 6 minutes it starts to drag. Though the album is only 43-plus minutes, the presence of back-to-back-to-back long songs on the back end makes things feel longer than they are. Worse, the material lacks the same wild novelty and raw hooks that 666 had in abundance. I like it all but I’m only really impressed by certain tracks. That’s a bit of a letdown.
Musically, Bütcher has a lot going for them. KK Ripper and KV Bonecrusher go all in guitar-wise with furiously jagged riffs stacked on melodic NOWoBHM harmonies and grooves. The six-string insanity flows like blood from the n00b recycling unit at AMG HQ, making every track kinetic. There are many slick, memorable moments scattered over the album, and the duo never seems hard up for inspiration. Hellshrieker is a special kind of monster. He’s like 15 people trapped in one body and they all want their time in the spotlight. Screams, death roars, blackened cackles, croons, everything just comes out in seemingly random fashion and it all kinda works. It’s really just an issue of the songs having less bite and staying power this time that undermines the goatworks.
There’s never going to be a dull Bütcher album. Their all-gas, no-brakes approach guarantees that much. I enjoy On Fowl of Tyrant Wing and several songs are good enough to make playlists. I just don’t see blasting this as much as I did 666 Goats, because I was obsessed with that goatwomit nonsense. I can still recommend it though because good times will be had and the milk of Black Phillip will season your beer salad with many exotic blessings. Go get bucked.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Osmose
Websites: osmoseproductions.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/butcherspeedmetal | instagram.com/butcherspeedmetal
Releases Worldwide: October 25th, 2024
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