Once upon a time; many, many years ago, there was a kid named Lonegoat who lived in the land of Florida. And as was tradition for Floridian young people around that time, he played in death metal bands. He showed a real talent for playing the piano and keyboards and, in the words of one former bandmate, “brought a much more classical piano sound to the band rather than someone playing chords and some strange sounds here and there […] and it made all of us in the band have to step up our level of playing to a more classical orchestral sound.”
Well, as is often the case, this kid grew up and went on to do grown-up things like serving in the US Air Force for a while. But after coming back and relocating to Texas, Lonegoat struck out as a solo pianist — calling the new musical venture Goatcraft. A few years back, I wrote about Goatcraft‘s 2013 and 2016 albums.
But before that, in 2011 he had put together a CDR demo to hand out at shows. Here we’ll discuss Mephistophelian Exordium which collects those demo recordings and made them available to the broader public for the first time ever, just a little over a year ago. While we’re here, we’ll also take a look at brand-new album Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, and in the process treat our ears to a full decade worth of “Necroclassical” music.

Goatcraft – Mephistophelian Exordium (Hessian Firm, 20 November 2020)

Goatcraft – Sic Transit Gloria Mundi (I, Voidhanger Records, 26 November 2021)

