There is a certain survivalist instinct that pervades in the southern states. It has been documented in the resilience of its people over many centuries, in New Orleans’ recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina, and in the immediately recognizable extreme music which has poured out of the region like sweat in recent decades. For those still untouched by the remorselessness of Goatwhore, they are a veteran super-group project comprising current and ex-members of Soilent Green, Crowbar, Acid Bath, and Nachtmystium who, since signing with Metal Blade in 2006 and releasing one of the purest blackened thrash albums the metal scene had ever been cursed with, have been compelled by popular demand to make Goatwhore the main priority in their lives. And with the band currently touring alongside the likes of surging retro acts Skeletonwitch and Toxic Holocaust, as well as having just been tapped to support DevilDriver and Suffocation in the new year, their persistence seems to be working. If Goatwhore’s 2007 opus “A Haunting Curse” didn’t give you a surge of the darkside as it should have, and in turn you haven’t already made Goatwhore a priority in your hectic listening schedule, their new album “Carving Out The Eyes Of God” should convert any existing non-believers. An old complaint in metal was that aging groups couldn’t keep up with the new trends, and young bands would end up stealing the fire ignited years earlier by the veterans. Whether due to the metal scene’s mushrooming in recent years, the Internet, or simply something in the food, this long-held gripe appears to have been turned on its head for once and for all. Now young bands bitten by nostalgia do their best to emulate once-reigning styles to picture perfection, while a veteran act like Goatwhore end up bridging the gap between black, death, thrash, old-school hardcore and punk better than any young band on the scene today. The band took what made “A Haunting Curse” such a mainstay in true metal aficionados’ collections and upped every single component to 11 on “Carving Out The Eyes Of God,” from influence to instrumentation to catchiness. They topped a perfect record with yet another perfect record. In that sense, Goatwhore are mirroring the kind of consistency southern bands like Corrosion of Conformity, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Soilent Green, Down, and Buzzov*en have effortlessly generated over the years, while simultaneously setting a new standard for the channeling of human pain and suffering through extreme metallic excellence. “Carving Out The Eyes Of God” blasts faster than your favorite death metal band, worships the occult with more devotion than most revered of death metal acts, and even manages to mosh and skank harder than the toughest hardcore out there. And with Ben Falgoust who doubles up as Soilent Green’s expressive frontman not only comparable but possibly superior to Pantera and Down’s Philip Anselmo in terms of spirit, perseverance, soul, and vocal versatility, Goatwhore have even the hard-to-find pieces in place to create a legacy that few bands could ever dream of leaving behind.