### Joel Grind: The yellowgoat sessions

#### 12/02/13 || gk

Toxic Holocaust’s 2011 album Conjure and command was a solid slice of thrash metal and main man Joel Grind had finally bit the bullet and got on board a drummer and bass player after having previously played all the instruments himself. It was something of a step forward for the band with their best production yet and the songs were all pretty good too. “The yellowgoat sessions” though is a different beast and goes back to the demo days of Toxic Holocaust for inspiration.

What we have here is some proto thrash and Grind is back to playing all the instruments and the vocals. The sound is raw and almost like it was recorded live in the studio. For the most part, this album sounds like a rough recording that Lemmy might have made with Venom in the early 80s. That sounds like a good thing but it’s a formula that gets old really fast. Still, opener Hell’s master of hell is fun in a very Motorhead inspired way even if it is one of the dumbest song names in recent times. “Foul spirit within” goes for a more mid-paced Bathory like feel and the raw sound actually helps in building a dark atmosphere. “The eternal one” slows things down even further and crawls through murky feedback and tons of fuzz to good effect. Apart from those 3 songs though, there’s nothing here that really sticks.

It’s all well and good to opt for a purposely lo-fi, raw production to claim a return to your roots. However, when you’re capable of so much more, it just seems like a whole lot of self-indulgence. Also, the songs just aren’t all that good. 3 good songs out of 8 is a good bit below average. It’s all loud and rushes past when the album is playing but barely anything makes an impression and once it’s done, there’s very little recall value.

The more I listen to “The yellowgoat sessions” the more frustrated I get. Joel Grind is capable of much better music than this self-indulgent twaddle. I’m going to pretend like this album never happened and wait for the next Toxic Holocaust album instead.

- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Self-released
- Website: Joel Grind Bandcamp
- Band
- Joel Grind: vocals, guitars, bass, drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Ascension (Intro)
- 02. Hell’s Master of Hell
- 03. Vengeance Spell
- 04. Foul Spirit Within
- 05. Cross Damnation
- 06. Grave Encounters
- 07. Black Order
- 08. The Eternal One
- 09. Hail to Cruelty
- 10. Descension (Outro)