By Jonny Bakes
When a band that can be loosely bundled into the genre of “comedy metal” announces a new album for release on April 1st, you have to wonder whether it’s a joke. But for this band, the release date is no joke and neither is their commitment to their goblin mascot, John Goblikon, who appeared in the video that first brought them to my attention. It is, of course, Nekrogoblikon who will be hitting the Sophie stage for Thursday shenanigans at Bloodstock later this year, so that gives a good few months to get to grips with this latest offering in the form of ‘The Fundamental Slimes and Humours’.
The band have come a long way since their early goblin-themed album ‘Goblin Island’ and certainly hit a new trajectory with their sophomore album ‘Stench’ which marked a stark increase in musical technicality and the meteoric rise of John Goblikon who has ended up with his own talk show, ‘Right Now’, which has spanned three seasons to date! This latest release continues the trend of mixing stupidly catchy melodies and ferocious riffs with healthy amounts of silly. You’ll find yourself humming along to songs that sound like they could have been lifted out of Sesame Street whilst covering themes that Elmo certainly wouldn’t consider touching!
The album wastes no time in grabbing your attention with the chaotic ‘Right Now’ (taken from John Goblikon’s talk show). It flits between the recgnisable nasal vocal style of Nicky Calonne, aggressive hardcore-style shouts and rapid screeches layered over heavy riffs and organ melodies that belong in a circus. There’s so much going on here that it’s hard to take it all in at once yet somehow this works really well and I still can’t work out how! This then leads into ‘Golden Future’ which carries an infectiously catchy melody that can only really be described as “jiggable” although I did manage to stay seated (mostly because I’m lazy though).
But the standout track for me has to be the nihilistic ‘Going To Die’ because it sounds nothing like you might expect! Although it may start out with some ferocious grindcore vibes it completely flips this with an overtly jolly tune that is a complete juxtaposition to the lyrical content. There’s just something about a really happy tune accompanying lyrics like “woke up this morning and wanted to die” that really tickled me. It sounds like it’s set up well for live performances too so I can’t wait to cheer along at the end at Bloodstock!
Overall, this album is as fun as it sets out to be and pulls in influences from folk metal and electronica to embellish the ridiculousness to make some real earworms. If you consider yourself too metal for silly music, then you may as well just walk away now because this is not the album for you. But if you like bands like GWAR and Finntroll then you’re pretty firmly in the target audience for Nekrogoblikon and I reckon you’ll be pretty happy with ‘The Fundamental Slimes and Humours’. It may be pretty dumb, but it’s dumb in a way that takes a lot of musical talent. Hell, I’ve always said you have to have decent musical talent to be able to make it as a comedy/gimmick band, and the guys that brought us ‘We Need a Gimmick’ have nailed it with this latest effort, so give it a try!
- ‘The Fundamental Slimes and Humours’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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