In Dante’s Inferno, the second circle begins the proper punishment of Hell, a place where “no thing gleams.” It is reserved for those overcome with Lust, where carnal appetites hold sway over reason. In Nine Circles, it’s where we do shorter reviews of new (ish) albums that share a common theme.
Sometimes the ties that bind two albums together are very, VERY loose. I don’t know that I can draw a thematic parallel between the progressive black metal ritual that is Gaahls WYRD and the Schuldiner worship that is Gruesome beyond the fact that both released last Friday. Maybe there’s something to the way one artist pushes forward to escape their past, and one rushes backward, embracing a past they weren’t part of? Is that enough?
Regardless, time to descend.
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The last time we caught up with Kristian Eivind Espedal, aka Gaahl, he was pushing further and further away from his primordial black metal stew with Gorgoroth, finding a rhythm in the folk and ambient textures that surrounded his 2021 effort The Humming Mountain. There’s an immediacy to Braiding The Stories: the metal aspects are pushed up, guitarist Ole Walaunet crafting riff after riff of heaviness that doesn’t look to replicate the blackened components of Gaahl’s past. Rather it embraces it, wrapping its notes and licks around the man’s history while finding a strange and alluring gothic rock tinge to tracks like the title track and late album highlight “Visions and Time”.
The rest of Braiding The Stories finds the band operating in a push/pull scenario, balancing ambient segues like the gentle “Voices in My Head” and more ominous “Through The Veil” and more scorching metal artillery: the opening attack of “Time and Timeless Timeline” is so tasty, with Gaahl’s piercing cry ascending in volume along with Walaunet’s killer riff. I could listen to that riff for hours, causing serious neck injuries in the process. “Root The Will” has a similar approach, taking a thrashy, late 80s/early 90s approach and not letting up for an instant. Meanwhile closer “Flowing Starlight” is the most left of center track, flowing with an electronic, goth rock pulse that crashes into double kick and black metal bliss at key moments. There’s a lot to take in, but like a lot of Gaahl’s output over the years it’s entirely worth it.
Braiding the Stories is available now from Season of Mist. For more information on Gaahls WYRD, check out their Facebook page.
I’m still coming to grips with the overall mission statement of Gruesome: the channel the spirit and death metal majesty of Chuck Schuldiner and Death. Previous albums covered the Scream Bloody Gore/Leprosy/Spirtual Healing period to varying degrees of success, and now Silent Echoes finds the band moving to Human territory. The opening guitar of “Condemned Identity” should be instantly recognizable to a Death-head, as it channels the same tone and function as Human’s immortal “Lack of Comprehension”. Matt Harvey’s vocals are spot on (actually they’re like Schuldiner on steroids), and the entire band seamlessly moves into the fluid, technical death that Chuck and the band transformed into back in 1991.
So your enjoyment of Silent Echoes is going to largely depend on your enjoyment of Death, and this period of their development in particular. For me, if you’re going to pay homage to one of my favorite metal bands of all time, especially in what was the beginning of my favorite period of their existence, you better do it right. Gruesome do, and the lack of silliness and focus on just crafting fantastic riff after riff makes this their most successful album to date, expertly finding their way through a sonic onslaught of effects and tempo changes in “Fragments of Psyche” and “Shards”. The phased guitar effects that open “Frailty” are *chef’s kiss* and the whole band, including Dan Gonzalez on lead guitars, Robin Mazen on bass and Gus Rios on drums are amazing, with an extra shoutout for Rios who has the unenviable task of channeling Sean Reinart so soon after his tragic passing. I can almost swap this in with my Death rotation and only my 25+ years of familiarity with those songs are stopping me from making a mistake as to who is playing.
Over time and repeated listens, that’s going to change.
Silent Echoes is available now from Relapse Records. For more information on Gruesome, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.
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Until next time, keep it heavy…keep it safe.
– Chris
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