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SCOUR “Gold”
SCOUR “Gold”
By Dr. Abner Mality
After three colorful EP’s and several years of buildup, extreme metal supergroup SCOUR finally makes it’s full-fledged landing with “Gold” and this sucker was more than worth the wait. This is one of the best mergers of black and death metal ever unleashed. It attacks without mercy from the jump and even the three ambient interlude tracks are well thought out and fit perfectly into the album as a whole.
The blending of genres is so smooth throughout that it is hard to tell where death, black and grind elements are. That’s a pretty slick trick. It helps that the production, mixing and mastering on “Gold” is as sharp as a serial killer’s knife...the sound is great and all the instruments pop! As for the music, the songs are very compact, with only one exceeding the four minute mark. There’s some similarity to GOATWHORE in full flight and at times this sounds like a more refined version of NECROPHAGIA. But SCOUR really takes a backseat to no one.
The big question was, how would the aging Phil Anselmo handle the lead vocals? I’m here to tell you, I have never heard Phil sound better. His ripped throat black metal rasps are intense but his super low gutterals are as good as anybody in the game. Just listen to that boy growl on “Infusorium”, “Coin” and “Devil”. This is a level of brutality that Phil has not reached before and it’s a redemptive performance. The other members of SCOUR are more than up to the task of matching him...they include Anselmo’s ILLEGALS co-hort Derek Engemann, John Jarvis of AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED, Mark Kloeppel of MISERY INDEX and Adam Jarvis of PIG DESTROYER. There are elements of all their “home” bands in SCOUR, but perhaps the dominant vibe here is black metal, which can perhaps be best heard on “Invoke” and “Serve”. Satan is profusely praised! Add in some very creepy sound collages like “Contaminated” and “Angels” and you have a complete package of horror-dominated extreme metal.
If you enjoyed the prior SCOUR EP’s, you should go nuts for “Gold”. This kicks things up another notch yet. A devastating album!
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