#FeatureFriday Goat Farm – Are We Damned?

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Goat Farm. Ethereal stoner doom from Rochester, New York

Every so often an album does something unexpected. You go in thinking it’s going to be one thing and even though it does that thing very well, it also introduces other things that elevate it above. Are We Damned? is that.

At first listen I got the doomy black sabbath, groovy riffs, gnarly distorted bass but I also got this lineage back to Babes in Toyland, L7 and PJ Harvey, this unfettered, refined angry and dismay laid out on top of a minimal but thickly dense arrangement of guitars, bass and drums. It’s the space and mystery that allows vocalist Mimi Snyder deliver their damnations to a cursed world.

I said, minimal, yes, it’s not overcomplicated but it is intricate in it’s arrangement. It’s powerful in that nothing overpowers anything else. Molly Mink & Sage Alice(guitars) and Stephen Coleman(drums) work so tightly alongside Mimi’s bass work to give the songs the air to breathe. It’s never claustrophobic,it has moments of real intent, a groove that is thick.

All that said, when the album gives way to be mellow and introspective, it does so well it takes a moment to remember how intense the previous tracks are.

This IS a political album. Make no mistake.

It also grooves and pounds and grinds, heavy as a ten ton truck.

Untidy Music

I woke up to the news that Russia are prodding at the NATO’s defenses. Does this mean war or is it just another scare tactic to get his enemy’s allies in line? I honestly don’t know but I’m scared.

So here I am home alone after calling off work trying to shake off the feeling of impending doom. So I get started on work I actually care about and decide to check out this week’s pick for our Feature Friday initiative and start writing.

“Ooooh Goat Farm, sounds dope and the coverart look sick!”… *looks at album title*… “Are… we Damned?”… okay…

Yeah, suffice to say it’s a record that hits hard on two fronts simultaneously. Musically we’re being presented with some nasty Sabbath-like riffage so dirty slow as fuck riffs that feels like they’ve been dregged up from the primordial ooze. The singer Mimi starts belting out the words “Hope wears thin, I’ve lost mine, This hatred wins, It won’t be the last time” with a voice clear as day that soothes us into an almost hypnotic state until transitioning to a screamed howl of despair ripping us away from that comfortable lull screaming out the words “Damned! Are we damned?”. Well, it sure feels that way…

And the album doesn’t let up in that regard, it’s loud, angry and it doesn’t offer an escape to that feeling of despair. But neither does it simply wallow in it because while it doesn’t offer the magical words of naïve performative positivity to escape this feeling it does offer something else. Anger… anger directed not at the people that are not exactly like us but aimed right there where it belongs. Those in power whose callous mindgames got us in this shit and the puppets carrying out the orders of these madmen. Soldiers, cops, bigots…

In that way I see this as a call to arms rather than a celebration of wallowing in misery. Use that anger and take action. We can’t stop Putin or Trump but we can protect the weak in our society and let our words ring out to the bigots around you. The insecure hateful fucks that got these idiots into positions of power that allowed this shit to fester.

You might say with the album’s nihilistic tone that it dropped at my footsteps at the worst possible time it could have, alternatively you could say it was just the right time. We’ve had it good, we have been lulled into a catatonic sense of comfort over the years and we are gonna need bands like Goat Farm and other like-minded bands to rip us away from that comfortable lull. The term ‘woke’ has been turned into a joke, an insult but now is the time to reclaim, cause we need to wake up, pull the wool from our eyes. It’s time to get woke, it’s time for action…

Eveyweveydevey

Goat Farm is one of those bands that I fell in love with from the first note I heard from them: a low, over driven and super fuzzy guitar tone, that lets the interested listener know immediately, that they will hear Doom Metal. They will not experience something nice, colorful or uplifting; this will be music that expresses anger, fear and anxiety; music that rips away the veil of comfort we have hung around us, and that shows us the world how it really is. It is ruthless and uncomfortable and will crush and suffocate them. It is not as fast as other styles and it doesn’t even hit as hard. What it is, is heavy.

Goat Farm are playing with this beautifully. Their general tone is very groovy, plodding and methodical, but they find ways in every song to surprise the audience and shake things up, with quick tempo-changes, short drum fills and sudden melodic guitar pieces. These sections never come out of nowhere though, instead the band telegraphs everything in a way that makes the listeners perk up and pay attention. It is also no coincidence, that the most conventional, prettiest song on the album is the one with the harshest lyrics; for how young these four people seemingly are, they are amazing songwriters.
Speaking of lyrics, they are about the opposition of authoritarianism, the need for self-determination, environmentalism, and the necessity of true justice in the world. There is anger and futility here, but also a defiance that is very much needed. Not only is this bands music loud, their message comes across just as clear.

Overall, this is one of my favorite discoveries I’ve made recently. Guitars, bass, drums and vocals are played and performed expertly and sound fantastic, the mood of the tracks is absolutely spot on, and the message is important, relatable and clearly comes from the heart. For a band that has only released music for two years, this is an incredibly impressive piece of work and I am eager to find out where they go from here. I’m definitively a fan!

Florgoth

Rochester, New York band Goat Farm has been described as Stoner Metal, Doom Metal, and Alternative Metal, depending on where you look, but none of those terms capture the directness, intensity and gorgeous dynamism of this album, released last June.

From the first track (“Intro”) to the last (“Stolen Land”) the album sounds like a coherent statement on the state of our society and the world at large, set to music that grinds and soars in turn. It’s somehow both visceral and intellectual. The album clearly has something to say, and uses the language of fuzzed-out, crunchy guitars and drums all tied together by the incredible vocal range of Mimi Snyder, who can sing with sweet emotion and scream with terrific intensity.

Metal as a genre is sometimes difficult for me to connect with, but this album reached out and grabbed me from track one. It feels urgent and important, a warning to a human race that may be past the point of no return. The message isn’t hopeful, but it’s vital, and I hope more people listen.

E.A.

Updated: September 25, 2026 — 5:30 am

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