Imagining what sounds the absence of something emits can be as intangible as it is incomprehensible. A garden of dead flowers, for example, would presumably lack much in the way of disturbances or noises. Yet, Death Goals penned a soundtrack for that scene and it’s deranged, cantankerous, and irrepressible.
Cries from an abandoned crypt, yelps of fatalistic horror, and impassioned wails are abundant but coexist with smooth clean singing and bouncy call and responses. The United Kingdom-based tag team tossed their instruments and vocals into a laundry machine, slapped on the Prosthetic Records label, and alas, an album was born.
A Garden Of Dead Flowers feels like punk-driven, grindcore-aligned annihilation. Perhaps not all of the flowers are dead, but there is a distinct lack of rose-tinted perspective on this record. Bubbling under the surface is a sense of doom, instrumentally, at least. That compositional decision amplifies and emphasizes the turmoil heard in the screams and yells.
What binds things together is George Milner’s prominent percussion, which directs the tempo. Harry Bailey’s guitars pull punches a bit which creates space for both of the members’ vocals to slot in, culminating in a more unsettling environment.
Furthermore, much of the album is peppered with disjointed (complimentary) arrangements in that the guitars tend to surprise and throw a curveball rather than conform to a more organized or ritualistic approach. As unnerving as it may feel, it’s actually a punctuating aspect.
So maybe that’s the real sound a pasture of destroyed plants would leave: an unhinged, diabolic foreground placated by a subtle background while a clinging-to-life-species dins overhead.
Buy the album here:
7 / 10
MATT COOK