Godgory

Way Beyond (Nuclear Blast)
by Scott Hefflon

Kind of a no-brainer here, Godgory combining winning elements to create a tasty stew. While no chef ever made a name for themself by making stew, you can pretty much trust it to be edible, not too pricey, and there’ll probably be plenty of it. That’s the way it goes with stew. Ditto with bands. Way Beyond is mostly decent doom stutter’n’stumble (the kinda choppy, “binary”-style Meshuggah whips about, but here slinkily coils slowly around your ankles – like nü metal groove with a purpose) with a bit of mid-tempo melodic death thrown in, and an odd addition of chugging power metal (“Payback”), just to throw you off the scent.

The other standout track is “Sea of Dreams,” with its swelling pseudo-symphony behind delicate acoustics and sadly dancing keys, almost like something from “Bedtime Magic” on the yuppie radio station, but with a bit more ominousness than they usually program. A full-on distorted lead guitar joins in for the final minute, ripping a bit more like White Lion than Clapton, but keeping the mood light and vaguely uplifting.

But usually, the tunes stick in the gloomy mid-tempo range, like Dark Tranquillity without all the accessories to push’n’pull it so it’ll stick in your memory. And the vocals stay their course, sometimes dipping to a whispery croak, but usually hovering in the deeper regions of the Cookie Monster realm, without much variation in pitch or intensity.
(2323 W. El Segundo Blvd. Hawthorne, CA 90250)