The might Gorguts, who added atmosphere to thunderous Florida-style death metal before deviating into labyrithine riff progressive death metal on Obscura and From Wisdom to Hate, and then fading into obscurity with only one resurrecting as modern metalcore band Negativa, plan to return on September 3 with a new album entitled Colored Sands and a tour to follow.
If you don’t hear the heavy metal world pounding on the door to demand to hear it, here is why: the name is obviously of the type that is used by modern metal bands, including metalcore and “progressive metal” that is mostly indie with some progressive and very little metal, and thus, it’s unlikely that we’re going to get Considered Dead II, or even Obscura II. In fact, what it sounds like we are going to get is another modern metal album that, because it has abandoned what it is to be metal in spirit and composition, is a diverse collage of bits in the modern style, which means a giant indecisive waffle that leaves you feeling empty after consumption.
As the staff optimist here at DeathMetal.org, I am hoping otherwise, and putting my trust in Luc Lemay and team’s solid record in the past. However, the team is entirely different now, except for Lemay. Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia) is on rhythm guitars, Colin Marston (Behold… The Arctopus, Dysrhythmia) on bass and John Longstreth (Origin, Angelcorpse) on drums. This also makes metalheads uneasy, because no matter how much they “love true metal,” Marston and Hufnagel are from a hipster metalcore band.
Still, we preserve optimism. The hope is that Gorguts will make something interesting. That excludes technical metalcore. I would rather they released a rockabilly record that join the stupid and horrible trend of mixing Fugazi, frenetic 1970s jazz fusion, and a few metal riffs and calling it “innovation” when by definition it’s a recycling of past ideas. Time will tell, and we can only hope that Gorguts rise above the pack yet again and bring us a vision of something profound instead of something compliant.
I’ll listen to the album, but that preview song felt like the kind of ‘extreme metalcore’ that Ulcerate play.
Yes, it doesn’t look promising, which is a shame as they are one of my favourite death metal bands and one of the few that managed to take the craft to almost the level of ‘high art’ along with Immolation, Morbid Angel and perhaps Suffocation.
Preview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRXIuHnGTkk
It’s phenomenal!
You just failed with your comment ;)
Colin Marston… this man has never been involved with anything of worth. Poseur from the get-go with his stupid meaningless hipster shit (Infidel/Castro and Behold the Arctopus) and the Warr guitar gimmick. I remember him, or a bandmember, making a comment years ago about how even though BoA was so “wacky”, the music was entirely serious. I guess seizures are pretty serious things.
Ha! I guess so.
Obscura really ruined the definition of death metal in a lot of ways. All the discordant Voivod-ian elements on it were done more tastefully 3 years prior on Immolation’s Here in After (death metal album). The Erosion of Sanity was an amazing album that elevated death metal to the level Suffocation should have, but Suffocation was always plagued by wigger (preemptive mosh) grooves (and stilted song structures beginning with Pierced from Within). When this album comes out, expect nothing more than sideshow variety music (never mind all the discordance and the Chapman stick bass tapping used for “technical” effect, the “riding the chord” style from speed metal is still used in the majority of that pre-production song).
Cant say I see it the same way, Obscura tied sound to concept pretty firmly and quite well. It goes a lot further than Immolation as far as sound in concerned at least. It fits the `transcendent death metal`concept in a fairly unique way. The underlying songwriting is still Erosion of Sanity-ish, excellent album.
You all sound like grandpas bitching about how back in the day a car was a car, not some amazing piece of engineering that can break 200 mph. Metal is evolving. I know you would all love it if everyone still wore acid wash jeans and muscle shirts, had big, girlie permed hair, and played BC Rich Ironbird guitars, but that’s not going to happen. The world has moved on. Metal has moved on. Ulcerate is metalcore?! Born of Osiris is metalcore. Suicide Silence is metalcore. Ulcerate is death metal. Maybe not old school Suffocation death metal, but they have a lot more in common with Immolation than they do Veil of Maya. The new Gorguts album is going to kill. The new lineup is a dream team capable of writing music that pushes boundaries, not that just sounds like Gorguts did 20 years ago. If you want to live in the past, why even look for new music? Just stick to Tomb of the Mutilated (great album btw)and your posters of David Vincent (total fag, I hope he dies for coming back to ruin Morbid Angel) and you’ll be much happier. The rest of the world is moving on, with or without you.
You sound like a grandpa complaining that people are just too closed minded these days. The fact is that Ulcerate isn’t death metal; there’s only one type of death metal, and it’s old school. Why is Ulcerate so afraid to admit what they are? If metalcore is such an embarrassment, why are these bands making it, and then insisting we call it death metal to hide its inherent shittiness?
Ulcerate are metalcore in so far as they’re -core music played through a death metal filter. It’s not the case that there are no death metal riffs in it, sure. But it’s the case that when these sections occur, i.e. when they’re not playing hypnotic, repetitive psych/alt rock sections, they’re playing a salad of chromatic riffs in the death metal technique which serve no purpose. When you abstract away from the waves of riffs, you’re left with nothing but some aesthetically unappealing surrealist musical observation.
This isn’t also to say that people coming from some perspective won’t like the music. But people who have listened to some classical music – essentialy riff salad music par excellence, but strung together with a higher principle in mind – read some classical literature, looked at some romantic art, will find it basically ugly in it’s self-tortured chaotic, and blatently unresolved dissonence. Or something like that.
Heard the pre-production track? Maybe all the instrumental prowess one could expect from a Gordian Knot is there, but the riffs are nothing more than dissonance emphasizing one chord. Replace the discordant wanking with triplet picking and keep the chord emphasis and you have speed metal (angrier rock technique). Where Obscura could be called a progressive metal album which uses post-hardcore chord knowledge to create strange songs that conveyed their intent well (albeit not death metal), this new album is nothing more than a technical collage used to dress up mundane and directionless music. You can add Luc Lemay to the list of musicians who grew away from the “metal spirit” and filled the void with guitar lessons and being aware the pointless wankery that only appears to have use on the surface is all that is required to get peoples attention nowadays. Add the fact that you have blips (band members) in the world of “failed jazz try hards turn to metal for easy success from it’s moronic mainstream fanbase” cheering him along and we’re looking at a disaster here.
I love these sort of statements because it shows how easily motivations can be misunderstood when one doesnt have a complete picture. I mean if you cant tell Ulcerate is a step down from death metal, and not just in a stylistic way, what is the point of arguing anything? There is no seeing eye to eye between those who recognize quality and those who dont. The argument of progress is pretty silly too, the world has moved on to what exactly? Shit? Do you just smear your face along with everyone else because thats just what you are getting these days?
Metal is not evolving in any meaningful way, it has been stagnant for years. The usual kind of fool has been putting out the same old shit (with the point missing) and some gimmick tagged on to stand out since black metal.
Cover art leaked?
[img]http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/682/sandart.jpg[/img]
Great cover art, lame music.
Well I also like to think of myself as an optimist, but I’ll bet anyone 10 bucks they’ll totally fuck their good reputation with this one.
New song up, as a lyrics video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Vk7nb-idmdI
What do you think of this?
For this song, not much in the way of surprises. A lot of that focused “From Wisdom to Hate” style remains intact…
I think he has strayed away from the original Death Metal spirit with this album. But it is still a very good music album, in my opinion.