Goatwhore!
Life on the road, with a satanic black metal vocalist
William O’Donnell, staff
You hear about a metal band named Goatwhore, and “balance” is not the first word that rushes to your mind (from my experience, people have a hard enough time getting past “goat” and “whore”). But that is precisely the vibe I got out of my conversation with Ben Falgoust, the band’s frontman.
Goatwhore is satanic black metal. When talking about their personas offstage, Falgoust commented on their beliefs: “A lot of people question that thing, the basis of the “satanic edge” or things like that. Somehow, it’s almost like political angles, y’know? We don’t get into much . . . everybody in the band has their own beliefs, but we all share the common idea of a darker kind of presence within the band. There’s some guys that are more into the satanic edge . . . myself, I’m more like an atheist. . . . But we have a balance amongst each other in the band. We won’t argue about things like that.”
The offstage persona discussion turned to that of the other band’s they have toured with and their feeling of being a fan as well as a performer.
“We’ve been on tour with band’s we totally respect like Celtic Frost, Venom and now Exodus. . . . When we were younger we looked up to them and we never thought we’d have a chance to tour with ’em . . . they were all really cool. You always have that fear that you’re going to meet a band that you respect . . . and they’re a total prick and it totally changes your idea of the band,” said Falgoust.
This will be the band’s third return to our city since last summer. That means three separate tours all crammed back-to-back.
“Some nights you leave [at] 10 or 11 at night but then have to be in the next city by eight. It’s vicious . . . especially when touring, sometimes, with just a van and a trailer. A lotta bands are like that. Don’t really have time to stop,” said Falgoust.
Upon hearing about the lack of “stops,” I inquired about when the writing for the next project would be done.
“[Writing] mostly happens at home. Ideas come and are tossed around on the road . . . but never anything really structural. Mostly, it’s just playing shows, having fun, chaotic evenings with slugging mixed alcoholic beverages. . . . The chaos on the road brings ideas to you,” said Falgoust.
Tragedy struck the metal world when a Polish band, Decapitated, were in a traffic accident that took the life of Vitek, the band’s drummer, and severely injured Covan, the band’s vocalist,. Goatwhore has been helping an online campaign to raise funds for these musicians’ families.
“I wanna do something, man. . . . I’d love to donate a shitload of money, I’m sure a lot of people would,” said Falgoust.
This incident hit Falgoust personally, not only because he had become friends with these men during tours together, but because he had been involved in very similar accidents while on tour.
“Once I broke both my legs and ankles and was in a wheelchair for a year,” said Falgoust.
Falgoust was in another group, Soilent Green, when he toured with Decapitated. I asked him which group he considers “main” or “side.”
“It’s hard. I try to balance it, I guess. Goatwhore is the focus now because we just had a record come out (A Haunting Curse) . . . but Soilent had a new record coming out in April. So, I’m sure at that point . . . I’ll be pushing that for a year-and-a-half . . . I can give as much to both ends as I possibly can. . . . It’s balanced, but it’s unbalanced in a way,” said Falgoust.
One of the last things we talked about was their newfound journey into Winnipeg and Canada (last summer’s show in Winnipeg was Falgoust’s first time in our country), and the different feels between countries.
“Last time [in Winnipeg] with Cannibal Corpse was awesome! Out of the tour, it was one of the best. The floor went fuckin’ crazy! I haven’t seen shit like that since I was a kid. . . . It’s great! . . . We tour the states over and over . . . something like that is really refreshing. (Canadians) are different and appreciate things different,” said Falgoust.
Falgoust hopes to do a cross-Canada tour (possibly with Cephalic Carnage), but until then you can catch this very large individual from New Orleans growling onstage at the Garrick Centre on Feb. 18, when Goatwhore opens for Exodus.
So, when it comes to personal beliefs, fandom versus playing, different countries, time to play versus times to write, like Falgoust said himself, “I guess you’ve got to have a balance.”
