Gorelord - Zombie Suicide Part : 666
2002 - Season Of Mist
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Season Of Mist web site.
This record has been annoying the hell out of me for weeks now. Usually, horror-inspired death metal releases of this nature are fairly immediate, much like the visceral cinematic gore-fests the bands take their cue from. They don't leave you with chance to cogitate on their inherently ridiculous nature and leave you instead caught in the unstoppable velocity of their claret-splattered thrill-rides. However, Frediablo (of Necrophagia fame) appears to have taken a bit of a leaf out of psychological horror's book too, and given the listener that little bit of breathing space.
And I can't decide whether that is to the album's benefit or not.
For the most part, Zombie Suicide... chugs away in much the same (severed) vein as did Gorelord's debut offering, Force Fed Human Flesh. Brutalising, dirty riffs pound away over a solidly oppressive rhythm section, while Frediablo's grunts, gurgles, screams and hoarse cries add the appropriate malevolent atmos. The production has been improved since the last effort, with the guitars possessing more crunch and a vaguely Mortician-esque stomp to the bottom end too. Basically, it's unconcerned with technicality, complexity or other such music contrivances, and concentrates instead on suffocating the listener with sheer, unrelenting brutality.
That is, until Frediablo steps back for a minute, and allows the ending of 'Dreams Of The Macabre' to become a sinister, down-tempo crawl, quiet and melodic in tone, with growling but melancholy vocals intoning 'my own private hell' gently amongst it all. Or when he throws the bass/guitar only instrumental 'Outback' in the midst of the chaos, with its heavily reverbed/echoed clean sounding guitars painting an altogether more reflective and, dare I say it, sensitive picture than the tableaus of carnage presented before and after.
These moments are surprisingly effective and definitely show promising signs of Frediablo trying to innovate within a fairly rigid genre - after all, obscenely graphic lyrics and mid-tempo chug-fests can only take you so far - but this reviewer can't help but feel that perhaps, despite the improved production and adventureous spirit of this offering (as well as the undeniably cathartic brilliance of tracks like 'Screams Choked To Silence' and 'Shrieks Of The Undead'), Gorelord were somehow purer on Force Fed Human Flesh.
But, strange personal niggles aside, this is a perfectly adequate slice of depraved brutality, given extra shine by some moments of successful tinkering with the horror-metal genre's boundaries. Definitely more In The Mouth Of Madness than Cannibal Ferox this time out, but for gorefiends like me, this could be a turn-off.
7/10
2002 - Season Of Mist
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Season Of Mist web site.
This record has been annoying the hell out of me for weeks now. Usually, horror-inspired death metal releases of this nature are fairly immediate, much like the visceral cinematic gore-fests the bands take their cue from. They don't leave you with chance to cogitate on their inherently ridiculous nature and leave you instead caught in the unstoppable velocity of their claret-splattered thrill-rides. However, Frediablo (of Necrophagia fame) appears to have taken a bit of a leaf out of psychological horror's book too, and given the listener that little bit of breathing space.
And I can't decide whether that is to the album's benefit or not.
For the most part, Zombie Suicide... chugs away in much the same (severed) vein as did Gorelord's debut offering, Force Fed Human Flesh. Brutalising, dirty riffs pound away over a solidly oppressive rhythm section, while Frediablo's grunts, gurgles, screams and hoarse cries add the appropriate malevolent atmos. The production has been improved since the last effort, with the guitars possessing more crunch and a vaguely Mortician-esque stomp to the bottom end too. Basically, it's unconcerned with technicality, complexity or other such music contrivances, and concentrates instead on suffocating the listener with sheer, unrelenting brutality.
That is, until Frediablo steps back for a minute, and allows the ending of 'Dreams Of The Macabre' to become a sinister, down-tempo crawl, quiet and melodic in tone, with growling but melancholy vocals intoning 'my own private hell' gently amongst it all. Or when he throws the bass/guitar only instrumental 'Outback' in the midst of the chaos, with its heavily reverbed/echoed clean sounding guitars painting an altogether more reflective and, dare I say it, sensitive picture than the tableaus of carnage presented before and after.
These moments are surprisingly effective and definitely show promising signs of Frediablo trying to innovate within a fairly rigid genre - after all, obscenely graphic lyrics and mid-tempo chug-fests can only take you so far - but this reviewer can't help but feel that perhaps, despite the improved production and adventureous spirit of this offering (as well as the undeniably cathartic brilliance of tracks like 'Screams Choked To Silence' and 'Shrieks Of The Undead'), Gorelord were somehow purer on Force Fed Human Flesh.
But, strange personal niggles aside, this is a perfectly adequate slice of depraved brutality, given extra shine by some moments of successful tinkering with the horror-metal genre's boundaries. Definitely more In The Mouth Of Madness than Cannibal Ferox this time out, but for gorefiends like me, this could be a turn-off.
7/10
