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GUTVOID “Durance of Lightless Horizons”
GUTVOID “Durance of Lightless Horizons”
By Dr. Abner Mality
It’s been an exceptionally good year for death/doom, with the likes of ATARAXY and TEMPLE OF VOID putting out great albums. Canada’s GUTVOID aren’t quite at that level yet, but considering this is their debut, it might not be long before they get there.
They specialize in long songs that manage to combine sludgy, crawling slabs of death with a surprising dose of melody and composition. Sure, there’s a big chunk of “cavernous” death metal, especially in the vocals, but I wouldn’t call the riffing primitive by any stretch. There’s also a fair amount of that “jangly” flanged guitar sound mixed with the more down-tuned stuff, giving GUTVOID a faintly Gothic touch. If you took all the piano, violin and frills out of MY DYING BRIDE, you might have a sound similar to what’s here.
“Coils of Gas-Hewn Filament” starts us off with a long song that lumbers mammoth-like over the tundra, setting the tone and tossing lots of interlocking riffage. Although gruesome, it’s obvious from the get-go there’s something more going on here than just INCANTATION and AUTOPSY worship. We get five more tracks of similar ilk, but with closer “Wandering Dungeons”, GUTVOID’s reach has exceeded their grasp. Not many bands can do 14 minute long death-doom tracks convincingly and sure enough, this wears out its welcome. The last four minutes could have been pruned at no loss to anyone.
It’s a promising debut if you like murky, tank-like stuff and I await future funeral dirges from GUTVOID with interest.
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