NIGHT GOAT: The Sleeping Shaman Premieres “Ghost Sickness” From Ohio Death Rock Band; Totem LP Nears March Release Through Black Donut Records

photos by Molly Crowe

Canton, Ohio-based NIGHT GOAT today issues the new single “Ghost Sickness” through an exclusive premiere at The Sleeping Shaman. The song precedes the band’s second album, Totem, nearing release through Black Donut Records in March.

Not for the weak of heart, NIGHT GOAT delivers abrasive, slashing, dark noise rock/death rock, with elements of goth, post-punk, and doom, their barrage of sounds owing to an almost supernatural regard of classic bands of the genre like Samhain, Unsane, 45 Grave, Eyehategod, and even Sonic Youth. The ten new tracks that embody Totem showcase NIGHT GOAT at their deadliest yet. The album was engineered by Jeremy James at Wreckroom Recording Studio, mastered by Sterling “Spidermonkey” Hankins, and completed with artwork by Chris Bentley and Gordiart. Totem also features guest guitar by Clinton Jacob (Mr. Phylzzz) on “Wendigo,” saxophone from Matt Corey on “Death Crow Dance,” and additional percussion from Tommy Dalo on “Child Of Owls” and “Death Crow Dance.”

Totem is an album based on Native American lore. The new single “Ghost Sickness” is about trauma; recognizing the scars of our past, and coming out the other side as a functional human. Lead singer Julia Bentley explains that there is “[a recurring theme of] an evil spirit possession, or horrible event explained through or blamed on the evil spirit itself, which took control over affected the outcome of situations, or affected the life dramatically of the individual and could change the individual’s path. All humans experience trauma throughout life that changes us (starting with birth). I believe sometimes trauma can be so life affecting, that it comes back to haunt us throughout our lives in different situations, within individual patterns and cycles we perpetuate over and over again.”

Making this connection has helped Bentley in overcoming her own Ghost Sickness, a connection that can be heard in the passion of her vocal delivery.

The Sleeping Shaman writes with the song’s premiere, “Ohio’s NIGHT GOAT are a difficult band to truly pigeonhole as words like ‘abrasive,’ ‘death rock,’ ‘goth,’ ‘noise-rock,’ and ‘post-punk’ are mentioned in their press statement, and yes, they are certainly all of those, and more so as their grizzly take on the underbelly of dank rock and metal has a definitive darkness to its sonics.”

Immerse yourself in NIGHT GOAT’s “Ghost Sickness” first courtesy of The Sleeping Shaman RIGHT HERE.

Black Donut Records will release Totem on LP – 300 copies on Ghostly Grape transparent purple vinyl – and digital platforms on March 17th. Find preorders where “Child Of Owls” is streaming HERE.

Watch for an official video from the album and more to be posted in the days ahead.

NIGHT GOAT’s debut album, Milk, was released in late 2019 and received rave reviews throughout the underground. In 2020 the band followed up with a split release with good friends Ghost:Hello on European label Interstellar Smoke Records. 2021 found the band added to a Samhain tribute album, World Without End, where they delivered an explosive cover of the Samhain classic “Moribund.” The tribute album was released by Black Donut Records, who invited NIGHT GOAT back in 2022 for the Melvins tribute LP, A Future Of Bad Men, where the band covered “Antitoxidote” which Decibel Magazine lauded as, “a sludgy mess that Buzzo would likely approve of.” These two collaborations led the label to sign the band for their second LP, Totem.

Having shared the stage with the likes of Christian Death, The Obsessed, Cherubs, Whores, Low Dose, False Gods, Mr. Phylzzz, and many more, NIGHT GOAT plans on staying quite busy touring regionally and beyond across the US in 2023. Stand by for live announcements to post over the weeks ahead alongside additional audio previews of Totem.

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