Well, this has officially gone on longer than anyone expected. As a lovingly silly metal side project from Rob Crow (Pinback, Heavy Vegetable), Goblin Cock's first record had had a certain air of expectation: If you were going to put the offending titular member on the front cover of your record (pierced and poking out from the robes of a magisterial goblin), you had to deliver something that sounds like metal. On that end, Crow and co. acquitted themselves with fervor, but it was a novelty in any sense of the term. Now, because no one asked for it, they're back with a second record, and the cover isn't even dirty. This time there's nothing left to do but write songs, and the ones on Come With Me If You Want to Live seem more likely to be played more than once.
To those who are concerned about false, dilettantish, or "hipster" metal, know that there are many things Goblin Cock are not: punishing, uncompromising, extreme, dour, and most of all, hip. But they are often a lot of fun. There's less metal posturing here than before, and the songs have taken on a slower and sludgier bent. Much like Crow's other projects, there are numerous little melodies, counter-rhythms, and unexpected earworms tucked into the songs. With Goblin Cock, gleeful boneheadedness meets melodic restlessness. "We Got a Bleeder" should gain steam from the relentless repetition of its one-note chug, but Crow can't help but have the song fold back on itself with a vocal harmony. Thundering bass lays out a melodic anchor to the slow churn of "Big Up Your Willies", which closes with a glassy, alien instrument tapping out new rhythms, all while Crow sings "raise our willies high up" on the key-changing chorus (if I've deciphered the lyric sheet correctly; it's written in runes).
As the riffs get slower and the guitar tone soggier, some of it starts to sound more grunge than metal, like the marble-mouthed vocals on the sludge-pop of "Loch" or the languid low-end riff and disaffected singing of "Haint". And of course, some of it sounds a lot like Pinback, but less fussy and with more palm-muted rapid downstrokes and more general swagger, none of which is really a bad thing. Slow, melodic riffs and pristine harmonies dominate "Ode to Billy Jack", and in place of the joke-metal filler from the first record, we get tracks like "Tom's Song (T.O.F.)", a double-tracked duel between acoustic and electric guitar, with a slow-burning chorus and clean, concise hook.
If the record seems like a bit of an anachronism, maybe it's not just the cover art or the hopelessly outdated reference of the title. You're more likely to see a metal band sporting a grin than many indie acts with guitars these days, and there used to be bands that had a sense of humor without being a joke themselves. Now, we just have side projects called Goblin Cock, and I'm kind of glad we do-- Come With Me... delivers self-aware smiles as well as unabashed, unashamed medium metal. What more were you looking for?
