With his new album, Goblin had to live up to two basic expectations: firstly, he was to justify the hype that was created around him and secondly, he needed to imprint his new living-situation into the album. In addition, all that was to appear as authentic as possible without actually loosing whatever it was that had made Bastard become something special. Tyler, the Creator, solved this task in a simple yet brilliant way, by stating everything he wants to say with a brutal frankness sculpted into his lyrics. All cards are already put on the table in the furious opening-track Goblin – the issue of sudden fame is broached just as well as the artistic pressure that comes along with having to top, for example, the goosebumps-intro of Bastard. What came out is a good 6-1/2 minutes of unapologetic gut-spilling and at the same time the proof of having understood that this album would reach the masses within a completely different context than the previous pieces in the Wolf Gang’s catalogue. The blessed yet furious youngling rids himself of all the chains tying him down. This way, nothing sounds like the attempt to simply re-create a successful recipe, but instead more like the fervency of a wild mind who needs this album no more than the masses. As expected, all kinds of taboos are being broken on demoniacally thumping beats, while the listener is to be surprised by impressively deep psychological realisations. The complexity of this character and the mixture of Storm and Stress and Realism in the Goblin’s way of living make this album become a fiery trip through the human abysses.
Goblin
