Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Album Review: "The Haruspex" by Gomorrah

The Haruspex
Well, I already used my cyborg story this week.

So, let's do an old fashioned meet and greet.

Gomorrah is from the not so very metal Canadian province of British Columbia, Kelowna to be exact.

I wonder if they are Kelowna Rockets fans?

Originally started this modern death metal duo of Jeff Bryan and Bowen Matheson began life as a black metal duo. I think that my personal tastes regarding black metal are well documented, so this will just be mentally noted as a good change.

The Haruspex is Gomorrah's fourth released, but only their second full length. They've certainly been around the block and played with some big bands and some nice festivals, but let's see what their new work is all about....

Bryan (left) Matheson (right)
More than just the music in the grooves, there is a method of making an album. There needs to be this type of song and that type of song.

Classic death metal has the overture and modern death metal eschews that.

Gomorrah neither commits to nor eschews this convention. They half chewed it.

There is a short song to begin the record, but it's not a preview of what brutality lies ahead.

That's the best descriptor I can give you for this very heavy duo. They straddle the line between new and old school.

The guitars are heavy and staticky sounding, but they're not detuned to dropped -F.

The vocals are straight up 1992 Tampa Bay, but the drums are all 2016. Blast beats faster than an AK-47 in a firefight and it has that glassy sound pioneered by Vinnie Paul.

There aren't loads of solos bashing you in the face, but there is a strong sense of dynamic songwriting. Besides the thundering blast beats and heavy riffing, there are melodically dissonant passages that lead up to a crushing blow to the face.

If I had to shove them into a subgenre, I would call it Izzy Straddlin' Death Metal, because it's a modern death record played with a foot in the past.

Release: 1/15/16
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Test Your Metal Records
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