Ελληνικά
Genre: Technical / Avant – Garde Death Metal
Country: Canada
Label: Season of Mist
Year: 2016
I deliberately let time flow before I started recording my thoughts on the latest release of Gorguts, “Pleiades’ Dust”. The outbreak that has been observed in the experimental / progressive / atmospheric extreme metal field, is a large-scale one, so any kind of distancing (in this case, a certain period of time) and filtering these sounds over the course of time, I think is the safest way.
On the other hand, we’re talking about the gods Gorguts. Gorguts are and have always been one of the most innovative and complex bands that ever walked upon this earth in the field of Extreme Metal. Each of their releases is a musical manifesto. An ode to perfect technique and bottomless inspiration. Wonder what happens in “Pleiades’ Dust”?
Faithful to the “traditions”, Gorguts proved to be (as always) consistent with the extremity and perplexity of their sound; therefore they delivered a unique record. The band is surprisingly experimental (they returned more experimental than ever) and technical, using Drone and Avant – Garde elements within their tracks, which give eerie, mysterious, perhaps nightmarish character to the record. One can also distinguish hints of classical music, and speed / thrash outbursts, but obviously in a lower percentage scale. The track structures have tremendous dynamics and excellent time – music sequence, progression and escalation. Whimsical playing with character is Gorguts’ game. There is a tremendous power overflowing from all members, who are producing compositions that are difficult to understand, let alone digest. This “deformed” Death Metal is what makes Gorguts unique. It’s direct, bold and straight – forward. The atmosphere created is brilliantly ecstatic; transcendental. It makes you feel one with the music and pulsate in the rhythm until you’re devour by a black hole.
While it may seem or sound strange, this EP of Gorguts, which has a total duration of 33 minutes, is consisting of a single piece, which, given its composition (in terms of music and the inner – division of 7 chapters) and quality , it could easily be described as “epic”. Despite its length, the piece flows tirelessly.
Lyrically, “Pleiades’ Dust” actually make a historical narrative. The EP’s lyrics refer to the «House of Wisdom», an ancient library in Baghdad that stood from the 9th to 13th century. This library contained and protected much of the world’s knowledge until it was destroyed by the Mongols in 1258.
Somewhere here I should mention that this is the first recording of the band with the new drummer Patrice Hamelin, who even though he played with the band at live performances since 2011, he became an official member in 2014, after John Longstreth’s departure.
Gorguts met with our expectations in the best possible way. This album is of course a worthy successor of the band’s previous releases and raised the bar even higher. Definitely one of the best releases this year. It was released on May 13 by Season of Mist.
5.5 / 6
