Set to kick off their festival blitz with their first performance on August 3rd at Loud As Hell Open Air in Drumheller, AB alongside Revocation, Insurrection, Gorepig, Cyborg Octopus, Squidhammer, Beguiler, and lots more, Vancouver’s genre-bending metal juggernaut Thirteen Goats is welcoming fans to enter their “Animal Kingdom” with their latest music video featuring guest vocals from Carly Ellen Jones.
The closing track from the band’s latest album, “Capricorn Rising” (released in July 2024 via Exitus Stratagem Records), “Animal Kingdom” is the biggest musical risk that the band has taken yet. It starts out with an unsettling pattern of clean, arpeggiated chords, before a wall of cascading guitar melodies and haunting clean vocals crash in for the verses.
From there, ominous grooves and wailing leads build up to a cathartic duet between Jones and lead singer Graham K. Miles, which shifts into a ferociously heavy climax and an angular final riff that terminates in a single bass note reminiscent of an atomic bomb going off. Not only is it a fitting conclusion to the record, but it’s a sign of how the band’s sound will likely continue to evolve on future releases.
The music video shows the band members performing a summoning ritual that ends with them falling under the spell of the demon they conjured (played by Jones). “It’s classic be-careful-what-you-wish-for stuff,” says Miles. “In that sense, it’s thematically true to the subject matter of the song, which is a warning about the seductive appeal of extremist movements and the consequences of becoming radicalized.”
Miles, who also directed the video, said he was heavily inspired by the works of filmmaker David Lynch, who passed away in early 2025. “His art was fantastical and surreal,” Miles says, “but it was always about real and contemporary issues under the surface. We’re aiming in the same direction with this video and this record.”
Watch and listen to “Animal Kingdom” (feat. Carly Ellen Jones) via its premiere on Bravewords HERE.
In addition to performing this week at Loud As Hell Open Air, Thirteen Goats will also be in Sooke, BC on August 10th at MOSH THE ROCK and Fort McMurray, AB on Sept 13th for the 3rd edition of Party in the Park.
Show Dates:
Aug 3 – Loud As Hell Open Air – Drumheller, AB – https://loudashell.ca/
Aug 10 – MOSH THE ROCK – Sooke, BC – https://www.facebook.com/
Sept 13 – Party in the Park 3 – Fort McMurray, AB – https://lnk.bio/
In additional news, Thirteen Goats have also been nominated by the Western Canadian Music Awards (https://breakoutwest.ca/
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Known for their punishing live shows, razor-sharp riffs, and tongue-in-cheek lyrical savagery, Thirteen Goats have carved out a unique niche by fusing numerous metal subgenres and delivering the results with a theatrical twist. The quartet unleashed their sophomore LP “Capricorn Rising” in July 2024 via Exitus Stratagem Records. The concept album tells the story of their mascot, Shepherd: a goat-skull-wearing Antichrist who raises an army of animals to liberate the earth from humanity’s constant wars and greed.
Each song on the record is part of a broader narrative that explores themes of disillusionment, radicalization, and rebellion as Shepherd and his 12 demon goats wage their crusade. This storytelling approach takes listeners on a journey through the darkest aspects of both human and animal nature across nine tracks that combine elements of death metal, thrash, and groove.
Listeners should expect furious riffage, ambitious song structures, and even occasional female guest vocals (courtesy of guest artist Carly Ellen Jones). What they shouldn’t expect is a record that plays it safe or falls neatly into one specific subgenre. Thirteen Goats is recommended for fans of Lamb of God, Carcass, and Mastodon.
Released on July 12, 2024, “Capricorn Rising” is available from Exitus Stratagem Records at https://www.exsrmusic.com/
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/
More info: Exsrmusic.com | ThirteenGoats.com
“It’s really strong. GREAT musicians, great production, as well as a very progressive aspect without losing the darkness.” – Kelly Shaefer from Atheist
“take a spin around the room with Thirteen Goats’ “high-concept narrative” and take on modern metal stylized by everything from Mastodon and Carcass to Cannibal Corpse and Lamb of God.” – Decibel Magazine
“Tinnitist Album of The Week! Thirteen Goats ‘Capricorn Rising’ – Exitus Stratagem Records – https://tinnitist.com/2024/07/
“All in all, on “Capricorn Rising” the gentlemen from the West Coast combine the universal power of North American thrash metal into a versatile, interesting and, above all, powerful record. 8/10″ – Power-Metal.de
“What makes this turbocharged song (Sign of The Goat) so damned much diabolical fun is the band’s melding of viscerally compulsive grooves, head-spinning instrumental pyrotechnics, and rapid-fire vocal assaults — and doing so in a way that makes the track highly infectious too. The song vividly intersects with the tech-death sphere through flurries of quickly darting, swirling, and swarming riffage, deliriously cavorting arpeggios, and a multitude of percussive fusillades. As displayed in the video, fingers and limbs fly like the wind, and the guttural barks and hair-raising screams in the vocal department rhythmically eject the violent words just as fast and just as furiously. But, as forecast, the song is also a viscerally groovesome beast. It’s almost relentlessly hard-slugging, but what really stands out are brutish, muscle-galvanizing jackhammer-bursts, the first of which comes only 25 seconds into the track. Another one of those episodes sets itself up as the backdrop for crazed guitar soloing that sounds like the ecstasies of fiends. And we did warn you — this thing is also immediately catchy and enduringly addictive. It comes recommended for fans of Bolt Thrower, Archspire, and Lamb of God.” – NoCleanSinging
“To get some idea of Thirteen Goats’ approach to heavy music, consider that the Straight’s own Mike Usinger once asked readers to imagine “Vulgar Display of Power-era Pantera in a cage match with Cannibal Corpse and Ministry.” That’s a great start, but it doesn’t account for tracks like “Beheading Zoo”, which tops neck-snapping thrash with enough throat-shredding black-metal screams to please even the most discerning Mayhem fan. Or “Murder Lives in the Heart”, which throws a soaring refrain of heaven-sent clean vocals (courtesy of Carly Ellen Jones) into the mix… Capricorn Rising is that rarest of things in today’s world: a true album, with a set of songs designed to be listened to in sequence. Those songs tell the tale of Shepherd, a man so distraught over the state of the world—endless wars, environmental devastation, and other human-made disasters—that he sells his soul for the power to communicate with non-human creatures… Capricorn Rising is a saga replete with scorched-earth mayhem and mass slaughter—something you can bang your head to while pondering your own complicity in the global capitalist exploitation of ecosystems and peoples alike. In other words, it’s basically the perfect LP for our profoundly fucked-up epoch.” – Georgia Straight (Vancouver Weekly)
“they turn on the thrusters for “Beheading Zoo” and “Permission To Die,” closer “Animal Kingdom” is a quasi-ballad with a ferocious second half. ” – Heavy Music Headquarters
“their music gets the blood pumping. Sounding something like Archspire mixed with Blackening-era Machine Head, the tracks on Capricorn Rising are direct and violent. ” – Metal Utopia
“I’d say this is melodic death, some brutal death stuff, melodic music, black metal vox, growns and clean vox too.” – 89.9 WORT FM – The Moshpit (Madison, WI)
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