The re-formed Gorguts today released the first substantial sample we have from their new album, Colored Sands, which will be available on September 3 in the United States and August 30 in the rest of the world via Season of Mist. The default medium will be the CD digipak but Colored Sands will also be available on vinyl LP, including black vinyl, yellow in red vinyl (limited to 150 copies), and clear vinyl (limited to 350 copies).
The big question for Hessians is whether Colored Sands will sound like nu-core, either frenetic Gothenburg-styling finger wiggling or breakdown-heavy antsy post-hardcore noise like the tek-deth noodlers. The answer is surprisingly that this band is in a three-way tie between slowed-down droning alternative metal like Gojira, technical death metal of the old school, and the new school of jazz-influenced indie-style progressive metal. Unfortunately, it’s not very exciting because as you can imagine, the focus is on form, and not content.
For example, “Forgotten Arrows” tries to hard to be about something but the music doesn’t match. It’s cut from multiple skeins of metal and alternative/indie rock cloth, but the song never gets a voice of its own. All of it is well-executed, and it avoided the irritating aspects of nu-core, which is commendable. However, it never really gains a spirit, like older Gorguts did.
That being said, this is only one track, and it’s a lot better than expected for the title (which may reflect a Vedic influence) and the addition of people like Colin Marston, who while he was a friendly and articulate fellow when I met him, is forever damned in metal for releasing the droning black metal imitation flavoring turd Krallice. The new guitarist and drummer seem to keep up admirably with grand old metal man Luc Lemay and his adroit fingers.
Track Listing:
- Le toit du monde
- An Ocean of Wisdom
- Forgotten Arrows
- Colored Sands
- The Battle of Chamdo
- Enemies of Compassion
- Ember’s Voice
- Absconders
- Reduced to Silence
Gorguts 2013 U.S. Tour Dates:
- 09/05 – Springfield, Va. @ Empire
- 09/06 – Raleigh, N.C. @ Hopscotch Festival
- 09/07 – Wilimington, Dela. @ Mojo 13
- 09/08 – Worcester, Mass. @ Palladium
Tags: death metal, gorguts, nu-core, progressive metal
Kind of a crosss between FWtH era Gorguts and Negativa. Luc’s voice still sounds good at least.
Not a bad song, sounds very Gorguts; Like a evolution of FWtH. As per usual deathmetal.org has its panties in a bunch. At least wait until the whole thing is released before you pass judgement on it.
Name one time they have been wrong about something like this?
This definitely isn’t the failure that some of us may have expected. In fact it made me want to listen the album. At least it goes from one point to another and not in cycles like a headless chicken.
Relieved that it wasn’t the failure I feared it could have been. But its not currently setting my world on fire. There are some cool moments, but they don’t tie up as neatly as would need to to make it as awesome as From Wisdom to Hate, The Erosion of Sanity etc.
Rob put it well. It definitly has its moments but at the end of the day there seem to be a few loose ends that need tying. I will investigate this release further.
Sounds ok. I’ll certainly give the full album a whirl. Might grow on me over time. Luc Lemay has always been the main brains behind Gorguts, and I doubt if any other past or present members have ever been all that involved in the song-writing.
The song is weak, but the style isnt the horrible mish-mash you would expect from the luminaries who are involved in the project. It is even quite compelling in parts, but that doesnt mean it is worth listening to ever again.
I must confess that your prediction is pretty much spot on.
The album has been leaked recently, so many people have been able to listen to it.
Forgotten Arrows and the title track (mid-paced, slowly evolving song) are by far the best songs in the album and the ones bearing the strongest resemblance to what we know as the Gorguts sound. There is an disgusting infection of that “indie metal” sound in some of the songs.
So, track 1, ok, but infected with “modern metal” sound, more than Gorguts.
Track 2, it’s alright, it has a sense of direction and some variation, enough Gorguts in it. Track 3 – Forgotten Arrows. Track 4, title track, probably the best song in the album, in my opinion. track 5, the highlight of the album: a classical composition for a string quintent, 4 minutes of dark classical music reminiscent of Shostakovich, I wish he would’ve written the DM like he would for this string quintent. Tracks 5 to 9: Directionless atmospheric meanderings. Track 5 is not so Gorguts, but it has more of a feeling of motion than the rest of the tracks. Track 8, Absconders picks up in the middle of the song and seems to obtain a purpose after 4 minutes of stagnancy.
HE allowed those other guys too much liberty of composing… a pity he let that guitar player use those riffs and lame ideas…
It seems that way. Now that it’s leaked, we’ll see if there’s more meat on its bones.
You may want to check the interviews of Luc Lemay for this album. He describes how he went about writing for it. He wrote general templates for the songs, as in general form, leaving implementation details to the whole band. Two of the songs in the album are written by someone other than Lemay, if I remember correctly. It’s fun to try and not read which one, try to determine it just from listening to the songs.
This is quite a surprise (about who wrote which songs and how many)
http://www.metalinjection.net/interviews/luc-lemay-of-gorguts-discusses-the-bands-first-album-in-12-years-the-death-to-all-experience-a-missed-collaboration-and-more
Interestingly enough, at the moment, some 10 listens in, the songs that weather the pass of time the worst are the first three while the rest of the album has massively grown on me. Although I feel as if they were incomplete landscapes. Vast pictures lacking details.