Gorguts

Obscura (Olympic)
by Scott Hefflon

I’m pleasantly surprised to find this much more than typically brutal grindcore. While Obscura opens like a sledgehammer to the head, it soon becomes apparent this is not your older brother’s grindcore record. Bios can claim ’til they’re blue in the face that the band they’re frothing about are technically adept musicians, that this platter is one of the most powerful listening experiences you’ll ever have, and that the band is much revered in some underground in some far away, safely unverifiable place. But Gorguts, while having the strangled-demon vocals and erratic drumming (blast beats thrown in seemingly at random amidst double bass rumblings offset by “dramatically sparse” heartbeat thumpings) that usually turn me off (and hence, gets the CD turned off), many other elements and ideas are up to no good here, and that’s what makes Obscura a taxing listen, but a listen nonetheless. While perhaps I’m relating this to metaphors only I truly feel, certain passages remind me of staggering blind drunk in darkened hallways, knocking into walls, bitterness and hate eating your guts out as if it were battery acid you’d consumed, not the most potent hard liquor you could legally get your hands on. At other times, there are moments similar to Grief (Eyehategod, if you prefer) that’re such black dirges, it’s the sound of almost passing out, swaying and wobbling dangerously, all vision dim and clouded, feeling your blood ooze through your vein like poisoned molasses. And this from a band that, at other times, sounds like a Frankensteinian splicing of Pleasure to Kill-era Kreator, early Napalm Death grind, and more than a little Primus weirdness (remember that guitarist Larry Lalonde was originally in Possessed, and it’ll make more sense). With an hour of mayhem and carnage to sift through, Obscura is certainly not for the weak of heart or stomach, and while many may instantly (or eventually) be repelled by vocalist and only original member Luc Lemay’s demon belch, there’re many, many worthy moments here.
(PO Box 7217 Elgin, IL 60121)