-Goat of Mendes-

Goat of Mendes were founded in December 94 by Surtur (voc) and Marco Pfeifer (Guit, voc), last remaining foundation-members of the current line-up. Completed with Matthias Freyth (guit), Winnie Freyth (drums) and Jens Weiß (bass), this former line-up was more like a side project, as three out of five members also played in a Power/Death/Thrash-Metal formation called Obnoxious .

Right from the very beginning you could grasp GOM’s future style of playing, in which elements of Folk were mixed up with typical Heavy- and Thrash Metal trademarks and set upon a grim Black Metal foundation.

In this line-up the band entered the studio on their own account in 95 and recorded seven tracks plus four poems by Surtur under the title “Hymn to One Ablaze”.

Perverted Taste-Records were impressed by the material and offered the band a licensing-deal, which culminated in the release of GOM’s Debut in 96 under distribution of Invasion Records.

Still quite straightforward in composition and style and strongly rooted in Black Metal, but always rather melodic, the Debut was received quite well by press and audience alike and mostly earned rather positive reviews.

Right after the recording sessions the Freyth-brothers abandoned GOM which left the remaining members unable to perform and promote the debut live on stage. The vacant slot on guitar was soon occupied by Lars Kotthaus . He already played together with Marco in Obnoxious‘ first line-up, so the basics for a satisfying twin-guitar attack had been met. The search for an adequate candidate for the drumkit seemed rather difficult at first, but after six months of intensive search a satisfying replacement could be made in the Ukrainian Evgeniy Shestopalov. Last but not least Maia completed the new line up as the band’s female voice.

In this Line-up, the follow-up release “To Walk upon the Wiccan Way” was recorded and launched in 97. The band somehow left the downtrodden Black Metal pathways of the debut to spice up their style with strong influences out of traditional Heavy Metal, Folk and a very slight touch of Gothic. The combination of musical style, personal opinions and beliefs and a lyrical concept based upon celtic orientated Pagandom and modern Witchcraft (Wicca) helped GOM to identify themselves with the growing Pagan-Metal scene.

It’s necessary to mention that “Pagan Metal” doesn’t mean neo-fascist and racist movements within the scene, operating under the same name! GOM strongly object against these movements, which they made quite clear by a statement which can be found in the booklet of “To Walk...”.

Although most reviews on the 2nd CD were quite positive, GOM didn’t manage to make it out of the Underground-Scene. Looking back one could reasonably say, that the band was still stuck in the process of finding their unique style and trademarks, as the sheer amount of different musical influences on “To Walk...” made a categorisation-attempt for the average listener quite difficult. But also the band suffered from differences concerning promotion and distribution of the CD, which invariably led to a split between GOM and their former label Perverted Taste.

In order to supply their supporters with new material, but also to find a new contract, the band recorded their first and only demo-tape “Paganborn” in 1998. With five brandnew tracks, the tape impressively showed GOM’s progression concerning their style as well as their musical ability. The reactions from press and supporters were quite enthusiastic, but still a new contract couldn’t be made.

After the release of “Paganborn” , Evgeniy left the band out of personal and musical differences and was promptly replaced by Ralle. Sadly Jens also had to leave soon afterwards. For a long time the vacant slot on the bass guitar couldn’t be filled up with a suitable replacement. Nevertheless GOM continued to work hard composing and rehearsing new material, which was finally recorded in August/September 2001 under the engineering of Matthias Klinkmann in the K-Sound-Studios Hagen/Germany. In January 2002 the third Longplayer „Thricefold“ was finally released. International Press and Fans alike attested GOM their very best work so far – GOM still play a very unique style of Metal, the sound quality now suits professional standards and the artwork for the album is atmospheric and colourful. Being released over the bands own label (Mendes Music), GOM are now looking for a strong distributor to carry the Pagan message as far as possible! And finally the long lasting problem with the vacant slot on bass guitar could now be solved: Since November 2001 the line-up is completed with F.T., who recorded the successful album „The Arckanum“ with german Celtic Metallers Suidakra.