THIRTEEN GOATS

track-list:
Sign of the Goat
Murder Lives in the Heart
A Wolf in Shepherd’s Clothing
Global Fuckup
Beheading Zoo
Permission to Die
Beating the Disease
Goats of War
Animal Kingdom

lyrics and vocal arrangements for all songs written by Graham K. Miles except for ‘Goats of War‘ (lyrics by Graham K. Miles & Leonid Verman)
‘Sign of the Goat‘, ‘A Wolf in Shepherd’s Clothing‘, ‘Permission to Die‘ written by Rob Fitz-Gerald
‘Murder Lives in the Heart‘, ‘Beheading Zoo‘, ‘Beating the Disease’ written by Graham K. Miles
‘Global Fuckup‘, ‘Goats of War‘, ‘Animal Kingdom‘ written by Leonid Verman
produced by Thirteen Goats & Matt Roach
mixed & mastered by Diego Fernandez-Trujilo

THIRTEEN GOATS are:
Graham K. Miles – lead vocals, lead & rhythm guitars
Rob Fitz-Gerald – lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals
Cody Lewichew – bass, gang vocals
Leonid Verman – drums, gang vocals

additional musicians:
Carly Ellen Jones – guest vocals on
‘Murder Lives in the Heart‘, ‘Animal Kingdom‘

discography:
2021 Servant of the Outer Dark Single
2022 Servants of the Outer Dark LP
2024 Capricorn Rising LP

Kelly Shaefer from Atheist:
“It’s really strong. GREAT musicians, great production, as well as a very progressive aspect without losing the darkness.”
Decibel Magazine:
“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.”
Exitus Stratagem Records:
“Tinnitist Album of The Week! Thirteen Goats ‘Capricorn Rising'”
8/10 – Power-Metal.de:
“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.”
NoCleanSinging:
“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.”
Georgia Straight (Vancouver Weekly):
“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.”
Heavy Music Headquarters:
“They turn on the thrusters for ‘Beheading Zoo’ and ‘Permission To Die’, closer ‘Animal Kingdom’ is a quasi-ballad with a ferocious second half.”
Metal Utopia:
“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. “
89.9 WORT FM – The Moshpit (Madison, WI):
“I’d say this is melodic death, some brutal death stuff, melodic music, black metal vox, growns and clean vox too.”
The Viking in the Wilderness:
“Canadian band Thirteen Goats are out with the album ‘Capricorn Rising’, and metal is the style explored on this production. It is a striking variety of extreme metal we get in this case, where it appears that a speciality of the band is to seamlessly switch between as well as blend different aspects of thrash metal and extreme metal into a uniform whole and totality. We get chugging riff cascades as well as impact style riff and rhythm effects in both forms, and while groove patterns are mainly established when thrashing out we get more challenging escapades of a technical nature too in both moods and modes of the band here. With a little bit of a side step into a power metal inspired galloping mode of execution now and then to boot. A probably even more defining feature of this particular album are the vocals however, with a handful or so of different distorted and clean vocals used throughout, which does expand the boundaries of the landscapes explored quite a bit. That we also get some very occasional gentler and atmospheric laden moments also document a band that can be more expressive when they feel the need to be so. If you generally enjoy bands that switch back and forth between thrash metal and extreme metal as well as combining these two traditions, then this is an album that merits a check.”
​​​​​Heavy Debriefings:
“Next up we have 13 goats with ‘Capricorn Rising’ and this BC band basically created a death metal rock opera not unlike something that you might hear from something like Dethklok but done in their own particular style. You’ll hear death, thrash, heavy metal, hard rock, progressive, alternative, and some other moments that go hand in and with this kind of stuff, it is a very out-there album if you’re not already initiated to it. But if this sounds like something that could be for you, it very well could be. We don’t get enough death metal rock operas, so why not give this one a shot.”
Vampster Magazin:
“Musically, the Canadians offer pleasing death metal that is sometimes more technical and sometimes more thrashy. The quartet from Vancouver occasionally surprises with unexpected song structures (‘A Wolf in Shepherd’s Clothing’) ARCHSPIRE-moderate pressure and vocals (‘Sign of the Goat’)…. the album is definitely exciting, so to speak. Probably also because it always has a lot of grooves and knows how to present fine riffs, like at ‘Beheading Zoo’ or in terms of speed dynamics (‘Beating the Disease’).”
Overtone Magazine:
“Unsurprisingly, this is another awesome release! It’s packed full of awesome, heavy riffs, and some incredible clean and harsh vocals, all of which have pretty catch, melodic moments to shine through. ‘Sign of the Goat’ is an incredibly strong album opener, but honestly there isn’t a bad track on the album, with plenty of other highlights, including ‘A Wolf in Shepherd’s Clothing’ and ‘Permission to Die’. They also have a pretty cool image and theme, leaning fully into the pagan/satanic stereotypes of the genre. It’s 42-minutes of a brutal, heavy assault, and is massively enjoyable. It’s not going to be for everyone, but for those into the heavy end, I’d certainly recommend checking it out! And, while I would say it is better than their debut, it’s also a testament to how heavy this site has made me, that I love this now! 8/10, great stuff!”
Canadain College Radio – August 2022 (Earshot) (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“#14 on Top 20 – Loud”
Decibel (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“An alchemical style reminiscent of Cannibal Corpse, Misery Index, classic Megadeth, melodic Swe-death, and all eras of Death and Carcass.”
MetalSucks (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“Rips, we’re here for it.”
Metal Injection (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“Perfectly marries old school death metal, blackened tendencies, and heavy metal choruses.”
Exclaim! (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“THIRTEEN GOATS unapologetically raise the deathcore flag for the new decade and absolutely don’t care what people think.”
The Georgia Straight (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“Think Vulgar Display of Power-era Pantera in a cage match with Cannibal Corpse and Ministry.”
No Clean Singing (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“A gut-punching and head-hooking offering of death metal that borrows liberally from many of the genre’s subsets, as well as bringing in elements of thrash, black metal, and grindcore.”
The Mosh Pit on WORT 89.9 FM (Madison, WI) (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“With a name like THIRTEEN GOATS, it’s gonna be evil. It’s cool, thrashy, blackened groove metal, a little like a Lamb of God sound with a bit more heavy brutality going on and a dash of black metal evilness. Great stuff!”
Heavy Mag (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“THIRTEEN GOATS make seriously good music and sound like they have a lot of fun doing it. They write great upbeat thrash songs with strong melodies that appropriately sway from sinister to camp and pull it off tremendously. For some classic charcuterie of extreme metal mixed with a bit of tongue in cheek, you’re well looked after here.”
Metal Temple:
“THIRTEEN GOATS is a new strength in the extreme scene.”
Heavy Music Headquarters:
“The starting point of Thirteen Goats and their debut album ‘Servants Of The Outer Dark’ is death metal, but it doesn’t remain tied to it. They explore all types, including tech death and melodic death metal, and even genres outside of that like thrash, groove, and doom metal. Each song brings out a unique side to the band, whether it’s the politically charged ‘Prisoner’s Anthem’ or the body horror of ‘Sub-Being.’”
[9/10] – Metal Observer:
“Canada’s THIRTEEN GOATS are incredibly fun to listen to and at multiple points subtly humorous—and, as such, make themselves easily a breath of fresh air within the technical scene. That sense of fun is backed up with very proficient playing and dizzying creativity, far beyond what you would expect from a debuting act’s first full length… ‘Servants of the Outer Dark’ is an excellent debut full-length from these guys and I can’t wait to hear more!”
[8.5/10] – Metal Noise (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“All you need is love? No. All you need is THIRTEEN GOATS. Their debut album has everything your heart could desire in a Metal record, it’s a metaphorical pizza with all the toppings and a better thrill ride of a first crack we defy you to find!”
Man of Much Metal (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“These guys have the ability and the chops to succeed, whilst channeling bands like Lamb Of God into their output.”
Stephen Quinn, The Early Edition (CBC Radio One) (‘Servants of the Outer Dark’):
“This is so good.”

Is it thrash?
Death?
Groove?
THIRTEEN GOATS don’t care, and neither should anybody.
This Vancouver four-piece tramples all over subgenre conventions to create an alchemical style of infernal riffs, huge hooks, and uniquely theatrical songwriting.
The band’s new album, ‘Capricorn Rising’, is a death metal rock opera that tells the story of their mascot, Shepherd:
a goat-skull wearing Antichrist accompanied by 12 demon goats who help him raise an army of animals to liberate the earth from humanity’s wars and greed.
It’s a tongue-in-cheek tale of the anger we all feel at the world we live in, and the dangers of letting it turn you into a monster—delivered as a fitting soundtrack for the apocalypse.
Graham Miles:
“I think fans are going to get everything they loved about our first record, only more of it—and more focused. We’re exploring the same themes on this album, but we’ve connected them by weaving a cohesive story throughout these nine tracks that lends context to the musical and tonal shifts so that they feel more seamless. And just like on the last record, we haven’t been afraid to break the rules. You’ll find some curveballs, and I think that’s going to make this a really unique listen for old and new audiences alike.”
Death metal brutality and frenzied fretwork abruptly give way to huge, unexpected hooks and theatrical choruses.
The vocals jump between ragged gutturals and powerful cleans without warning.
‘Sign of the Goat’:
Lyrics: “This song is kind of a prelude to the album as a whole—a summary of the overall story and themes. It’s written from the PoV of Shepherd and the 12 demon goats as they conquer the earth, while urging the survivors to give up their humanity and join them or perish.”
Music: “This is kind of a blend between big, fat grooves and rapid-fire tech death passages. Think Bolt Thrower with just a hint of Archspire.”
‘Murder Lives in the Heart’:
Lyrics: “This is the start of Shepherd’s journey—where he decides to sell his soul and renounce humanity so that he can become The Antichrist. We also hear him blame humanity for the pain they’ve caused him and vow to show them the error of their ways: ‘So let me open up your eyes / come see this hell you made on earth / it’s far too late to run and hide / it’s time to get what you deserve’. At the end, you can hear a female voice echoing his sentiments—is it a lost love, the voice of his conscience, the voice of Mother Earth, or something else?”
Music: “We start off in a kind of waltz after a short intro, with some eerie trem picking slightly behind each verse—then break out into a short passage of clean vocals and guitars before the chorus slams in with the album’s biggest vocal hook. After that, there’s a major tonal shift where the time signature changes to 4/4 and the band just goes full tilt all the way to the final chorus, where the female vocals and an ambient guitar are layered in to create a crescendo leading into the next song.”
‘A Wolf in Shepherd’s Clothing’:
Lyrics: “This is the song where Shepherd begins appealing to the other animals of Earth to join his army and rise up against humanity. It’s a recruitment anthem aimed at anyone who’s ever felt mistreated or abused, and a call to arms. It’s also a reminder that the people we overlook are often the most dangerous: ‘Sacrifice of blood and bone / to satisfy my loathing / not the dog they thought I was / but a wolf in shepherd’s clothing’”
Music: “This is an all-out thrasher with some rhythmic curveballs and Lamb-of-God-like grooves in the verses. It also features a short clean vocal hook in the choruses, followed immediately by contrasting gutturals. Leo tops it all off with some of his most frenetic drumming on the whole album. We hadn’t originally planned for this one to be a single, but we changed our minds once we heard the finished version. We actually made it the lead single from the record, because we think it encapsulates a lot of different elements of our sound in a very cohesive way. We also think it’s a bonafide banger.”
‘Global Fuckup’:
Lyrics: “This is the song where Shepherd and his animal army make themselves known to humanity and issue their ultimatum—leave your way of life behind and join us, or die. It also has what I think are some of the funniest lyrics on the record, like: ‘Lab rats revolt / gnaw out their throats / death at the zoo / children get chewed'”
Music: “This is one of the most musically aggressive tracks on the album. The guitars pummel in 5/4 time throughout most of it, but there’s also a huge breakaway section in the middle where the lead guitar goes off on this crazy Robert-Fripp-meets-Primus kind of solo. Everyone hated this idea at first—it felt insane until we had finished recording it, and then I think we all realized it actually gave the song exactly what it had been missing. Everyone we’ve shown it to since says it’s a standout moment on the record.”
‘Beheading Zoo’:
Lyrics: “The lyrics in this one are about Shepherd’s army meeting humanity on the battlefield for the first time and the bloodbath that ensues. It’s extremely straightforward: ‘We’re coming / hell’s legions / it’s time to meet your demons…Prepare for bloodletting / this zoo is not for petting’”
Music: “Thrash with hints of melodic death metal here. Think High on Fire meets Children of Bodom (but without the keyboards).”
‘Permission to Die’:
Lyrics: “In this song, Shepherd expresses his disgust with humanity and declares that their complacency has doomed them: ‘Die for masters / or save yourselves / should be easy / but servitude still sells…But if you cannot live without a boot upon your neck / then you must meet the end beneath a cloven hoof instead’ If you go beyond the story of the album, this song is also about the frustration we feel with humanity’s collective inaction in the face of imminent disaster. It’s about the choice between standing up for ourselves or laying down and dying for our overlords, and how we always seem to do the latter when we should be doing the former.”
Music: “This song features the absolute gnarliest and most kinetic riffs Rob has ever written. It’s actually a real pain in the ass to play, but it’s 100% worth it because it goes hard as hell. A real wrecking ball.”
‘Beating the Disease’:
Lyrics: “Now on the cusp of victory, Shepherd appeals to the forces of hell one last time to turn the earth against the remaining humans and grant him their most powerful black magic: ‘I travel down the ley lines / speaking to the spirits / grant me unholy force / and let this world hear it’ This spell requires him to drink lava from an active volcano, then allow the animals of his army to drink the blood from his veins: ‘Volcanoes vomit bile from the guts of hell / Satanic ichor the elixir for my spell / my veins the medium to mix this vile brew / as it has altered me, so must it alter you…Take my communion / let it lift you off your knees / rise up and raise your fists / we’re beating the disease’ He also characterizes humanity as a disease that must be cleansed from the earth, and his army as the cure. In a broader sense, this song is also about the extreme lengths people will go to for power, and how doing so can turn them into complete zealots.”
“I finished writing the lyrics for the album while I was traveling in New Zealand. I was hiking the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which was the location for Mordor and Mount Doom in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies, and I was literally standing on the edge of an active volcano—looking right down into the crater. The clay had been dyed blood red from previous volcanic activity, and it just hit me all at once how beautiful and powerful nature was. We act like we’re the masters of this planet, but we’re not. That’s where the line ‘Volcanoes vomit bile from the guts of hell/Satanic ichor the elixir for my spell’ comes from—it’s about Shepherd channeling the awesome power of nature to cleanse the earth.”
Music: “We kick off with the guitars doing a little call-and-response before locking into a fairly unconventional thrash riff, and then descending into a groove on the verses. Then there’s a kind of Cryptopsy-inspired pre-chorus riff, followed by a sort of mini-breakdown in the chorus. The middle of the song gets kind of spacy, with the guitars doing another call-and-response sequence under some mild phaser—then harmonizing for a little while before suddenly exploding into what is probably the fastest and most challenging solo on the album.”
‘Goats of War’:
Lyrics: “Leo started the first draft of these lyrics, then turned them over to me so I could finish them and make them consistent with the rest of the record. This is the part of the story where Shepherd and the Goats wipe out the last few stragglers and knock down all of humanity’s remaining monuments. It’s about the perverse thrill of dancing on the graves of your enemies. ‘We are the goats of war / braying the hymns of death / pastoral scenes restored / by mankind’s dying breath…Old world once more supplanting the new / how does it feel when the livestock is you?’”
Music: “A mid-tempo march with some unsettling time signature changes and probably the most ‘black metal’ feel of anything on the record. It feels a little in line with the kind of thing VLTIMAS might do—there’s even a hint of a David Vincent-style vocal delivery near the end.”
‘Animal Kingdom’:
Lyrics: “The final moments of the record find Shepherd singing to the surviving animals of Earth, including the humans who have joined him, and congratulating himself for their victory. But over the chorus of the song, he becomes haunted by the realization that he has become the thing he once despised—a dictator and a tyrant who has made the planet an uninhabitable husk. He also confronts his fear that perhaps the one part of being human we can never completely renounce is our tendency to seek power and destroy in the name of ideology: ‘And as I stare into my soul / I see what I can never purge / this thirst for power and control / the same disgusting human urge’ As he’s coming to this realization, we hear the female voice from the start of the record return and utter the same lines as before—but now they seem to be mocking him: ‘So let me open up your eyes / come see this hell you made on earth / it’s far too late to run and hide / it’s time to get what you deserve’ Now on the brink of insanity, Shepherd and the 12 goats decide to abandon the planet and travel through the cosmos looking for another world to conquer. The cycle repeats itself—and evil never truly dies.”
Music: “We close the record with both the longest song and the biggest musical risk on the whole album. It starts off almost like a ballad, before a chorus of eerie clean vocals join in for the verses over a wall of cascading guitar melodies. Then the chorus breaks in with harsh screaming over a wall of distortion—before the clean picking returns underneath an ambient and otherworldly solo. After a buildup, the song falls into an ominous groove that carries it forward until the climax—where dissonant open chords ring behind tortured howls and an angular riff that terminates in a single bass note like an atomic bomb going off. A fitting conclusion to the record—and a sign of how the band’s sound will likely continue to evolve on future releases.”
The band comments about the album cover:
“The cover for the record is being designed by Tom Davis. It features Shepherd and the 12 demon goats charging headlong towards a city on the front, and then on the back you see the city in ruins. Tom has an incredibly unique style, so the image has a pretty simple idea behind it but the way he’s doing it is going to be absolutely iconic.”
“Rob had to go to the ER while we were recording the album, for what turned out to be a stomach ulcer, I think. The weird thing about that is that we’ve had a member of the band end up in the hospital on every record we’ve made so far (I had a motorcycle accident while we were recording album #1). Granted, that’s only two for two at this point—so we’re not saying it’s a curse or anything. But it is kind of strange that it happened twice.”
“All members of Thirteen Goats have roots in the former Soviet Union. Leonid is from Russia, Cody’s got Russian heritage, Rob’s family is Armenian, and I’m Ukrainian. We didn’t write explicitly about that on this record, but it definitely informs the themes we’re exploring on the album—humanity’s capacity for violence, how power corrupts, how noble ideas can become twisted and evil, etc. A lot of those things show up in the history of that part of the world, and they’ve definitely had a ripple effect that’s touched all of our lives to varying degrees.”
“Kelly Schaefer from Atheist watched our whole set when we opened for them, and invited us to hang out with him afterwards on their tour bus. We had a great conversation about how metal music has just as much power as any other genre to tell meaningful stories and elicit genuine emotions, and he gave us some advice that really helped with the way we approached songwriting on this record. We owe him a debt of gratitude, and really hope our paths cross again on the road someday—thank you, Kelly!”