Year Of Metal #034: Gorguts - Obscura
Again an album whose press write-ups struck fear in my heart, and again a pleasant surprise. Gorguts are, as it transpires, some of the biggest hitters in the world of technical death metal, and while I wasn’t familiar with them going in, that speaks more to my ignorance of technical death metal than it does their influence or significance. Most reviews you’ll cast your eye over will nod to the difficulty and dissonance of their 1998 record, but they’ll also laud the release as a true classic, even an all-time great, of the subgenre.
For me, despite a lack of familiarity with the style, that quality certainly shone through. It’s tricky stuff from the off, with the titular opener hitting you like a truck, everything launching all at once, the frenzied drums alone enough to knock you off your seat. But they give you plenty to cling onto, most notably those bizarrely twisted guitars. They sound like they’re melting in the heat; it’s a cool, discordant hook.
You rarely have to search too hard for the good stuff in Obscura. “Nostalgia” is a highlight, the second half especially. Gorguts work their way into a conventional, recognisable riff; when they tire of that, the song drags itself to a slower, harsher gear, as though they’ve jammed something into the machinery just to see what happens. The death screams are ghostly and pained, while the pleasantly light guitar works around some Eastern-sounding scales. I won’t pretend I can discern much of the lyrical content, but there’s plenty going on here beyond the aggression of the howling vox and thunderous drums.
My pick of the bunch is the nine minute “Clouded”. This lurching, doom laden number sounds monumental. It’s a great exercise in atmosphere; even as the often-overwhelming percussion takes a back seat, it somehow sounds more massive than ever. The tune lumbers along monstrously with the vocals sounding ever more wounded and even strangely vulnerable. Finally all that gives way to an emotionally played solo and finally some see-sawing feedback as it slumps to a close. It gives me strange Shadow Of The Colossus vibes, images of a misunderstood beast plodding his last around a fantastical terrain which, intentional or otherwise, is pretty fun imvho.
By the time we’re at the super-listenable, riff-heavy “Illuminatus”, I’m thinking technical death metal’s not nearly the unchartable land it sounded like going in. Atonality and harshness are key weapons in their arsenal, but it’s apparent they’re not setting out to make music that’s unpleasant to listen to. There’s no aural assault at play here, it’s not by any stretch of the imagination an endurance test. It’s metal for theorists and moshers alike. You can headbang to your heart’s content with or without taking note of the complex arrangements and time signatures (many of which of course go over my simple head).
